The second day of the counting of the Omer. Kabbalistically, using the 7 Sephirot, emanations of God, is a day of strength-gevurah-in a week of loving kindness-chesed. Yesterday evening, as this strength/loving kindness day was ending, I had a wonderful City College moment that reminded me that the little kindnesses can sometime bring the most pleasure.
I spent the day finishing my Cultural Geography paper due that evening. No stress, it flowed well and I got it done with hours to spare. As I left the house to go to school, I had a thought of checking to see if I had a dollar (either bill or in change) for the parking lot. I grabbed my jacket, thinking that between my wallet and whatever would be in my pockets or rattling around in my bag would give me what I needed. This sounds like a longer process than it was, a thought that just whisked in and out of my head.
When I got to the pay station of the parking lot, I soon realized that was a thought I should have acted upon. I did not have a dollar in my wallet or my pockets or my bag--either in bill or change. I just stood there, staring into my wallet, feeling like an idiot, wondering what I was going to do. Do I risk parking without paying? Do I park, go to the annex and buy a pen or something for the change?
That was as far as I got when I heard a honk. I looked up, and a nice-looking young man in a SUV was smiling at me, holding out his parking ticket to me. I felt overwhelmingly relieved. With a big smile myself, I took the ticket, simply said "you've done your mitvah for the day" and we both went on our ways--me to part and then to class, him to wherever his evening took him.
Now, I don't advocate not paying for parking, but it was a moment where I was just stuck, and someone saw the situation I was in and helped out. It was a kindness that I will find a way to pass on.
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