I was shopping at the 99 Cents Only store for my latest mission to help Mikell, the beautiful school teacher we are all helping. I was filling my cart with backpacks, clip boards, erasers and other school supplies for her students when I looked around and noticed so many people in need of a little extra love and support right in front of me.

I was waiting in line when I had the thought to help someone in line as well as all these special little beings we are collectively helping in downtown L.A. So I looked around to find someone who I felt would not only benefit from this gesture but receive it graciously; as I am always conscious of this when doing this for people.

I noticed there wasn’t someone in my line that looked safe to offer this to so I snuck out of my line and over to the next register and handed the clerk $20 and said I would like to pay for your next customer’s purchase. I didn’t see the customer, but just felt led to do so and trusted it. The clerk smiled and took the money and I went back to my line to pay for my order.

I was watching as the clerk told the customer that she didn’t owe any money and that someone had paid for her. She was stunned and started looking around slightly confused, not quite understanding what just happened. The clerk was beaming and the customer was starting to smile as her mind was grasping that a stranger just bestowed an act of kindness upon her.

She kept asking ‘who did this, who did this?’ so I walked over to her and said hello. She is a beautiful, sweet older woman in her 70’s probably and she was smiling ear to ear. She said ‘you paid it forward?’ and I said ‘yes I did, I just wanted to make your day a little brighter.’ She thanked me and we started to walk out together.

We got to talking outside for a while and I told her what I was shopping for because she noticed my cart was filled with school supplies. She shared with me that she is part of the Life Choir and is very involved in charity work with the battered women’s shelters and was so motivated by the making backpacks for under privileged students that she was going to start doing that too.

Later when I introduced myself to her, she froze when she heard my name. She said her husband used to call her Dove. He would call her ‘his little Dove’. I melted. We both took pause in that moment and felt the energy that was greater than the two of us that brought us together in that moment.

Her name is Billie she then continued to share with me that her husband had passed away four years ago on their 50th wedding anniversary. She gave me some marriage advice and said ‘it takes work, you have to work on it.’ I thanked her profoundly and said I was willing to do the work and I will get to our 50th anniversary one day and think of her and her husband’s love and commitment.

Then she stopped speaking mid-sentence and said ‘I just realized today would have been his birthday’. We both paused again and our eyes felt the same exact thing at precisely the same moment. Her husband brought her a ‘little Dove’ to remind her he was thinking of her. She told me his name is Patrick, which is my father-in-law’s name. Wow.

So, the moral of the story is, whenever the Universe is pulling you to do something for someone, listen to it and do it! We never know the impact we will have on another and the ripple effect it will have on their lives and all the lives they touch with that foundation of kindness you share with them.

She asked for my contact information because she said she wanted to practice some yoga and meditation and I told her I would be happy to come over anytime and sit with her.

I am so grateful for this opportunity to meet such a lovely soul as Billie and I look forward to what tomorrow brings when I venture back out into the world to see who I can touch and who touches me.

Go see who you can touch.

I love you all.
Namaste

PS
Interesting that there was an actress named Billie Dove who was born in 1903 and passed away in Woodland Hills, where I grew up, and is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial where I viewed my Mother when she passed.

We are all so interwoven. That is the lesson. We are truly a tapestry, all with our own thread.

Blessings upon you.