Jennifer joined Mother Goose at the East Gate Cafe this morning. We had met only once before at a meeting of mom entrepreneurs who wanted to do a little networking. We didn’t talk too much at the first meeting, but Jennifer invited me to meet her so we could discuss my big ideas and her projects. Mother Goose was very excited to have a new friend with professional experience.
The scene of the bizarre occurrence — we were sitting in the corner.
I was already working my way through a bowl of cappuccino when Jennifer sat down. We had a preliminary weather discussion and then got down to some serious chit chat about working on our own businesses. She has had some great opportunities and had learned many things over the years and she was very willing to share her knowledge with Mother Goose.
We also got to talking about our families, of course. My large group of children and her only son, Andy — seemingly very different family situations. She and her husband Paul had adopted their son when he was a tiny fellow — they had lived in the city and Andy had attended some fine schools before they had moved to Oak Park.
In the middle school years, he had experienced some bullying by some really nasty kids. They had teased him for being of Asian descent — heartbreaking stuff for kids and their moms, of course.
She told me that Andy was doing well in high school, although he still wasn’t very involved in extracurricular activities. He’s interested in computer science and looking forward to college.
Suddenly Mother Goose had a weird sort of epiphany.
“Is your son a senior?” I asked.
“Yes,” Jennifer replied.
“And you called him Andy?” I asked.
“Yes,” she answered again with a quizzical look on her pretty face.
“Well,” I continued, “I was just wondering because my son is a senior also and his best friend is an Asian guy named Andrew.”
Her mouth dropped open and her eyes got rounder than my bowl of cappuccino.
“My son’s name is Ben,” I explained.
And then all of the halogen lights went on inside our heads. We simultaneously reached the bizarre conclusion that our sons were indeed best friends!
I’m still shaking my feathery old goose head at this amazing situation. As you know, Mother Goose does not believe in coincidences, accidents or acts of chance. I believe that every single activity and meeting under heaven’s stars has a real meaning in the general cosmic state of affairs. And this was just one more proof of that fact — our loving God is totally in charge of every moment in our lives and loves to arrange the most interesting combinations of people. There is no shortage of mysteries in life and He is the grand author of them all, including this one.
Jennifer and I had been chatting for over an hour before the great bizarre situation was revealed to us. Oh, we laughed and hugged and almost cried. We shook our heads and looked at each other with brand new eyes of understanding and compassion.
Suddenly everything made perfect sense!
We will never forget that moment and surely we will be friends forever after this day. Don’t you just love those times when the universe suddenly opens up, love pours down on us and great joy is real and wonderful?
Mother Goose just loves times like these. God bless you today!
Mother Goose Smiles 