20 Minutes

20 Minutes My friend’s son is getting married. Mazel tov! She asked me if I’d help her create “evites” for the wedding. I think it’s great that electronic email invitations are gaining popularity, but you have to be somewhat techy to make them happen, and I happen to be [insert modest blush] pretty techy. In fact, she told me once that I’m the most techy female she knows, a badge I wear with pride. We made a plan to meet at her home at 8:45 am on Monday (yes, we’re both vaccinated). My kid was running late for school--another topic for another day--so I ended up dropping him off at around 8:20. As I pulled out of the driveway at Oakwood, I wondered what to do with my approximately 20 free minutes. I’m not usually out and about at that hour. Should I go back home? Nah, opposite direction. Should I just head to Cleveland Heights, where my friend lives, and pop in and say hi to my in-laws? As I was deliberating, I got a phone call from my sister, who also lives in Cleveland Heights. My sister rarely calls me at 8:20 am, which is when we’re both usually trying to get our respective kids off to school, so I answered right away. Then she said this, I kid you not, word for word: “Ruchi,” she said, “by any chance are you hanging around Cleveland Heights for like, the next 20 minutes?” “Crazily…. yes!! I’m just leaving Oakwood, and I need to be in Cleveland Heights at 8:45, and I was wondering what to do.” I told her. “Why??” She told me that my 3-year-old niece had a bad cold and was up a lot at night. Now she had fallen asleep, and my sister didn’t want to wake her, but she had to drive my nephew to school. Could I come to her house and just hang out there for the next 20 minutes or so while she drove him? I was astounded. Really, could this be a coincidence? What were the chances?? I drove over to her house and took over my (very easy) babysitting duties. Bonus: I had not yet had a chance to say my morning prayers, and now I had a quiet, private place to do just that. When my sister came home she was so grateful for my favor, and I was so blown away by the turn of events that had enabled me to help her, and myself, perfectly. Later I was talking to my brother, and I told him the whole chain of events. He told me that he thinks I must be the kind of person who doesn’t waste a minute (this is not true, for the record), and therefore, God enabled me to use every minute of that time doing an act of kindness for another person, while also using the time for prayer and meditation, which is how I like to start my day. Yes, I have awesome siblings. The evites are done, my niece is feeling better, life goes on and we often forget these little things that fill us with faith and wonder. But it’s important to stop and notice, to stop and give thanks, to stop and allow our awe in the synchronicity of the Universe to remind us that the world is a fascinating and beautiful place, with a Plan that sometimes just blows us away. Shabbat Shalom, Ruchi