When Life Weaves Magic
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My son Ben lives in Poulsbo, a
lovely town across the water from Seattle, where I lived with my family for 25
years. He sent the following email to me and it is a better story than any I
could write.
He presents this story in a stream-of-consciousness way so I
broke it into paragraphs. Otherwise, it is all Ben’s words, unedited.
Have you heard of the Coffee Oasis
in Bremerton? A guy started it years ago. It gives homeless and people in
recovery a chance to have a job and a home and support to get back on their
feet. They have helped hundreds of people to transition back into life.
Anyway, the guy who started the
place has been diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer and only has another
twelve months or less. His family has been slowly building a lake house out in
deep Belfair that they had planned to retire to someday.
Medical bills have drained their
dream of finishing the place to a standstill. So my boss has been organizing
work groups to volunteer and provide materials so they can finish the house and
have a peaceful place for the last days of his life.
On Thursday a group of us went up to
the Lake House and installed hardwood floors and finished the electric.
On the way up, my work truck started leaking antifreeze. By
the time I got out to the house my engine was dumping fluid everywhere. So
after we finished working there, I coaxed the truck back to my own garage.
Here is the place where life weaves
everything together to someone’s perfect master plan.
A couple weeks ago Kristen had taken
her Durango to Ken’s to get a list of what needs to be fixed. One of the
biggest items needed was a water pump. So I ordered a water pump on Amazon and
it has been sitting on our kitchen table unopened for the past couple weeks.
Turns out the water pump was what
was wrong with my work truck and our two vehicles take the exact same part. My
co-worker Bob is a grease monkey, so after volunteering to get the floors done,
he came over and we spent the rest of the day into the night rebuilding the
truck.
With taking the truck apart and
putting it back together, we, of course, had to run to the auto store several
times as we discovered parts that needed replacement.
My boss had given us some cash for
our part in the Lake House project and after reordering Kristen’s water pump
again, the day ended out almost exactly.
So the truck is now running fine,
the Lake House is finished, parts are on the way for Kristen’s car and somehow
it all ended up being a wash.
Hopefully that is not too confusing
but I feel like life worked its magic and provided what was needed when it was
needed.
Ben Thomas
For Sondra
Ashton
HDN: Looking
out my back door
May 9, 2019
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