This author and speaker did a bit of a mid-west tour this past week, driving from St. Louis to Indiana to Iowa, back to Indiana before heading home. I tried to tell myself I was doing one big loop through the upper mid-west, though truth be told, it was more of zigs and zags, through the rain most of the way.
It was a rainy trip and I was slogging through downpours and thunderstorms as I drove. During one part of the journey, when the rain didn’t seem like it would ever let up, I challenged myself to find the radiance, in the rain.
Surely it was there, I just needed to be present and look for it. I pulled off the highway to get some gas and a little bit to drink. As I checked out with my beverage in hand, the clerk, never-looking up, murmured “Thank you and have a blessed day.” I automatically said thank you and turned to leave. No, I thought to myself, really thank her for saying that. I turned back to her. “Thank you for saying that. That was really lovely.”
Words can not describe her reaction. She lifted her head up and burst into the biggest smile I have seen in awhile. Standing a bit taller, she looked me in the eye and said with a shoulder shrug and that beautiful smile, “I always say that, it is sort of my thing.”
“I am so glad” I replied, “It is a wonderful thing to say. Thank you so very much. You have a blessed day as well.”
I stepped outside, into the rain and realized I had seen the radiance I was looking for that day. Right there, at a little Speedway gas station in Indiana, by a shy, beautiful cashier who wanted to remind me, and all of us, that we are blessed.