I take cabs a lot since I travel all the time for work. Cab rides can be awkward....you never know if your cabbie wants to talk or not. Recently, while I was watching my favorite sports broadcaster, Colin Cowherd, he mentioned that you should ask questions while in a cab because cabbies have great stories. Of course, to me, everyone has a great story. Everyone. But I decided to take his advice a few days ago while traveling from the Charlottesville, VA airport to my hotel. I was not disappointed. In fact, I was quite blessed.
My cab driver, Michael, is from New York City, born and raised, as he said. He told me while he lived there that he had no peace. He said it was just survival growing up. He said that he found peace here (which I totally get; it is a very peaceful place)! I told him how sorry I was and he said don't be. He said, because of all he went through, he can get through anything now and can keep his head when others are losing theirs. He went on to say that he sees every day as a gift and that he doesn't stress about those things that are out of his control.
I thought to myself, how many times do I have to hear this message before I take heed? How many times does God put people in my path who give me this message?
He then said something else that was profound. He said, unless you're a mom. And asked if I was. I said, oh, yeah, I have 3 kids. He told me that is different and thus harder to just let things go. He said that sometimes it must feel like you are holding the world on your shoulders, trying to balance everything. I wanted to cry because I know that feeling. He had such empathy for moms, I am sure because he knows what he put his own mom through.
Even so, his theory still rings true, even for moms. Even for THIS mom. My kids, by now, are out of my control. When they were little, I had the sense that I controlled EVERYTHING as far as they were concerned. But that was a façade. I controlled nothing; I still don't. When my kids were about 1 year old, I stood before God and my church and I surrendered my children to Him (they belong to him anyway, whether I symbolically give them to Him or not). Though I was sincere in my surrender, I have taken my kids back, hundreds of times, since those days. Why? Because I think, in my arrogance, that I can do better; that He has no idea what He is doing.
And there are those days when I think He had no idea what He was doing when He made me a parent, three times over! Surely He made the only three mistakes He ever made by making me a parent!
Just as God did not make a mistake when He chose me to parent my 3 kids, he did not make a mistake when He sent me to Michael's cab two nights ago. When I got out of the cab, Michael told me to be blessed.
And I am. I truly am.
In the Cab
