Power of Giving Rest to a Soul

I did my semi-regular trek into downtown Chicago for a theater show last night. I was able to bump my ticket around for this show and also catch the pre-show backstory/history discussion by the dramaturg and scanned the room to see who all was there.

All adult ages, surprisingly, were in attendance, even though it was a lightly attended event.

It was a great show, and I had about 25 minutes to hike a few blocks to the train station to catch the next to last train back out. I got out to the street and one of the older gentlemen that had been in the pre-show discussion started hiking pretty fast with me.

We struck up conversation after figuring out we were both on the way to the station and he was a pleasant man, probably 70 years old or so, but pretty spry as he was keeping up with me in shoes that didn't want to stay on my feet as it got colder that day.

We hop on the train together and I invite him to sit with me and we talk about life and how things shift as we get older and how what used to be a simple, not horribly busy life has become crazy with work and family demands.

Wisdom from those who lived a generation before is a beautiful thing to engage with.

I lay out the crazy weekend ahead and all the sudden he stops the conversation and goes - you should really get a nap in, you have a drive home once you get to the station (about a 45 minute drive), I could keep talking the entire ride back and you really should take a nap.....

I was going to rebut that because the conversation was going very well and he was cool, but, I had nearly fallen asleep toward the end of the show a couple times (not because it wasn't great, my body just said..... NOPE) and I had packed my contact solution in the car in case I did fall asleep and need to get them out to be able to drive home. So I pull out the ticket so I could hold onto it for the conductor and start getting my hood fixed up as a pillow.

This kind soul told me to give him my ticket so I wouldn't be woken up and he would make sure the conductor punched it. He promised to wake me up before his stop, which was two quick stops before my station.

I handed the ticket over, and fixed my hood, and tried to rest.

The next thing I know he is waking me up as promised. I swear it was a 10 minute gap, but, it was over an hour I was out. He hands me back my ticket and said he had taken care of the fare for me (he had some kind of laminated card that looked nearly as old as he was, was worn and barely legible as his pass, so maybe he was a retiree with some kind of free fare for life.... or so I'm hoping....). He said my ticket was still good until January of next year and that I should save it so I can get back to town again and relax from the stress a bit sooner than I normally do.

I thanked him as he was standing up to leave the train car and head to the parking lot at his stop.

I never did get his name.

But I can tell you the power of being given permission to rest while someone watches over you to make sure the key things are handled will be his 'name' and memory to me.

We all struggle to give ourselves rest. But to receive, and accept, the permission of someone - friend or stranger - to rest, with an ease because you can tell they care enough to be trusted in that acceptance, is even more rare.

There is power, and great humility in that offer - and in that acceptance. A power so deep perhaps we forget how much that can mean to someone who has no sanctuary to let their guard down and for a moment or two, to take off some armor and shift mental focus from fixing and completing, to resting and restoring.

Sometimes, the small miracle of love is for us, we just have to be willing to be open to it, and trust in it.

New adventures every trip, it seems.



©Kristen Garcia 11-2019