Playing with Destiny

Sometimes joy comes unexpectedly. Sometimes it comes in ways you’ve never expected. Sometimes joy surprises you. Today joy surprised me. Today I played with Destiny.

Now that sounds dangerous, doesn’t it? It is the thing we search for. We all hope to have some destiny in life, so we search for our destiny. Sometimes destiny break-in when we least expect it. For some, all of a sudden they find themselves in places they don’t expect and have an epiphany catapulting them into their destiny.

We take destiny very seriously. We feel our lives will be a failure if we don’t reach our destiny. Something so serious should not be played with.

Today started out as one of those days. My husband’s brother and another brother’s daughter, a niece are visiting. They are nice people, but clashes of culture and my lack of understanding their language always make these visits difficult for me. Add to that cooking food I can’t eat and sometimes, my mood and attitude is lacking. I try really hard to practice hospitality. It isn’t that I don’t like them. It is just difficult for me. Usually when they leave, I feel bad that my attitude took the better of me.

This morning my routine was disrupted. I cooked an omelet with enough red peppers and chilies to kill someone.  I made a strong bold tea that stained my stainless steel. I ate two slices of blueberry bread toasted while they feasted. Custom dictates loud chewing so I retreat to the other room praying for grace.

Nothing went well today. Everything was off, timing, meals, a cold shower, etc. You get the picture, it was NOT a good day. That was until Destiny came along.

My husband is trying to do some good. So he takes his brother, his niece and I on an odd trip to Fort Thompson reservation. We meet with a dear sister in the Lord who is native, who was preparing a Seder supper. We meet with her friends. What an odd group, including some colleagues of my husband, we were now ten people in the small apartment. Four were Native Americans, three were from Pakistan, and three of us, were plain vanilla folk.

After a delightful chat with our hostess, I started stressing about our long trip. I dreaded the trip in the car of four more hours with people who chose not to speak in English. I was getting tired. Then I started to play with Destiny.

Destiny is this absolutely delightful four year old child who was trying to watch Pocahontas among all these strange people. She had a book in her hand and I offered to read it. I read the book once, then twice, then another book, and then back to the first book. I coaxed her on my lap.

Before long, I was a little girl giggling and playing with Destiny. She charmed her way into my heart and will never leave. She brought me such joy. As I heard myself laugh, I thought, I haven’t laughed with such joy in a long time. There is nothing like little arms around your neck to remind you that life is worth living.

I forgot about the adults. They could have their conversations. I forgot about the long morning and the long drive ahead of me. I forgot about school. I forgot about all the things that stress me. As I hugged beautiful little Destiny good bye she kept saying “squeezes!” Playing with Destiny was the best thing I’ve done in a long, long time.