Friday nights at work are always super slow, so they get a guy to come in to clean the floors because of the lack of customers. Alberto, to be specific. I always say hi to him and we chat, just small talk; he's a nice guy.

There is this one lady that is super nice, just this little east-indian lady who has a mailbox in our post office. This lady, Nellie, came in and did her mail thing and we got to talking because it was so quiet. She was telling me about how she found these sarong type things at a store in the mall and they were a really good price, and she picked up a whole bunch to give out to her friends and family because that material is usually really expensive. Nellie went to the till to pay and it added up to eighty dollars, and she couldn't believe it. She cautioned me that sometimes we spend more than we should, and we have to make sure that we have always have enough for 'our bread and butter'. She laughed, saying that we all had a little teenager inside of us. She told me that she was always taking a good look at her actions and taking a look deep inside of herself to be sure of her intent. Nellie told me that it sometimes takes her weeks to figure out why exactly she acted in a certain way, but she always has to make sure that her intent was pure, because if it wasn't then she has to go and apologise and try to fix things with whoever she has wronged. She told me that she believed that things always worked out for her if her intent was pure. Nellie believes that so long as our intent is pure, God will grant our prayers if it is within His power. For some reason, this thought really calmed me. Since then, my anxieties about David and I, with him going away for university, have all but disappeared. This one thought from her has lead to a whole train of other thoughts, comforting thoughts. But anyways, that isn't part of my story.

So Alberto saw Nellie when she was saying goodbye to me after our chat, and asked her if she taught at Concordia. She said yes, and apparently she taught him when he was there seven years ago. They caught up and he told her of his business, the janitorial services business that he had just started. This guy is fifty-six years old, and just started his own business. He moved here from California, and didn't speak any English. Talk about amazing. He learned english seven years ago at Concordia with Nellie as his ESL teacher. When Nellie left with the promise that she would think about ways to help him with his business and to meet with him on another Friday sometime in the future, he turned to me and said that she was the most beautiful human being that he had ever met. 'She has such a kind heart, and I have never seen her lose her patience with anyone. She was always so happy when I saw her in the hallways. '
He then proceeded to tell me about this girl from another post office who wouldn't give him the time of day. He goes in there once a week, just like he does with my work, and always tries to be friendly with the staff. One of the girls won't acknowledge his hello, while the other always chats with him and they have built a friendship. He said hello to the first girl every week for two months, and she still won't look at him or acknowledge his presence in any way. He said that people who will do things like that aren't really worth it, when there are people like the other girl around who are open minded.
Alberto also cleans Concordia and ran into a student from Korea with a handicap one night when he was cleaning. The boy was crying, and Alberto asked him what was wrong. The boy shook his head and said that he was fine. Alberto said that it was ok, he could talk to him, even if he didn't want to talk now he could come and see him at his break if he was ready and they would work it out. The boy came to see him during his break from cleaning, and told Alberto that he was crying because he was cast out in Korea because of his handicap and didn't have any friends because of it. Now, in Canada, people were friendly and wanting to include him, he didn't speak the language well enough to understand them or to be understood. The two became friends and Alberto helped him to learn english. The Korean boy moved in with Alberto and his family, and stayed there throughout his education. Now he is living in South America and is stupendously happy.

I have run over these two conversations many times in my head since they happened on Friday night, and every time I think about them I smile inside, because there is hope in my heart again. As scary as it is to have that faith, I have learned that it is even scarier to be unable to have that kind of hope. Like the kind of hope that Nellie seems to have to see good in everyone with the influence that her kind words have upon others, or even Alberto trying to help others by teaching them what he has learned. He also told me that he has taught his children that it isn't what people look like that matters, the heart and the soul are the most important parts. Looks fade, everything changes on the outside, but it is a person's spirit, their 'essence', that stays the same, always. Now my hope that we will find each other again has taken on a new flame. Which, in case you didn't know, is a very good thing.

God really does work in mysterious ways.