pieces and ponderings

I was talking to my husband on the phone. The doorbell rang. I could hear our two dogs barking. Then I realized that their barking was coming from outside the house, not inside the house, and whoever was standing on our front porch had probably already been accosted by our two friendly, perhaps overly friendly, pets of the canine variety. I was right.
As I looked out the window to see whether it was the UPS delivery person or a local candidate seeking a vote in the upcoming county elections, I was surprised to see that the stranger who had just rang the doorbell was a boy, fully engaged in petting our pups.
I opened the door to see what the visitor wanted. He quickly handed me four plastic cards, spirit cards, we call them around here, which offer discounts at local businesses and raise funds for whatever your good cause may be. He was selling the cards for his school.
I took the cards as he continued to pet and play with our dogs. I didn’t know the boy, but I had flashbacks to my own childhood and going door to door in the small town where my family lived, selling some item to raise money for my elementary school. I looked through the cards and found one that had a few businesses that my family frequents, and told him that I would take that one. I offered the card I had selected back to him while I stepped inside to fetch my $10. He looked at me and said, “No, that’s your card, you keep it.”
So I got a $20 out of my wallet and asked him if he had change. “I will have to check, as he glanced over to the parent waiting in the car in our driveway. I think I do. But would you take a check?”
“No,” I said, “I will not take a check.”
“Ok,” he said as he grinned in my direction, “I’m pretty sure we have change.” He ran back to the waiting car, with my dogs running alongside him.
He returned to me momentarily with the change and gave it to me. Then he held out his right hand and looked me in the eye. I shook his hand. And as we finished shaking hands, he hugged me. I wasn’t expecting the handshake, much less the hug, but both of his gestures warmed my heart and brightened my day…and caught me totally off guard. Sometimes maybe the unexpected is just what we need most.

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