Being True to Yourself
I would like to relate a little story about a small boy who made a promise, kept it as an adult, and received a gift during a tragic time. This young fellow used to go visit with his grandmother a friend of hers who was living in a convalescent hospital. After one such visit grandmother explained that she never wanted to live the last years of her life in such a place. She asked her grandson, “If our family ever tried to put me into an old-folks home, what will you do?” The boy replied, “Grandma, I promise you that I will never let anyone put you into a place like that.” Years later, this boy was living in India and learned that after his grandfather’s death, his family was considering to put grandma into a nursing home. Though he had not planned to go the USA at the time, he decided he had to make good on his promise to his grandmother, and quickly made arrangements to return to the States to do so. As it turned out, by the time he got there, the issue was moot as the family decided to have grandmother stay in the home of a family member who would provide for her needs.
So what’s so special about this story?
Well, what I have shared so far is just the prologue. What happened afterwards is a lesson in how the Grace acts in the lives of those who are true to themselves. Shortly after arriving in the States, the man (and his son) met with his own mother and stepfather for dinner. Then, just a few days later, his mom and step-dad were killed in a tragic car accident. That he was able to see his mother before her death was truly an act of Grace. However, without that promise to his grandmother from the boy he had been, that last dinner with his mother would have never taken place.
I share this to illustrate that Grace is something that may or may not act in our lives as we would like; but it does act, always, for those of us who are true to our selves. For true truth of the matter is that if I had not, as a man, been true to the promise of the little boy that I was, I would not have seen my mom and her husband that last time just before they were taken from me, my family, and countless others who loved and admired them. November 7 of this year marked ten years since that tragic day, and I still feel incredibly blessed to know that in that painful time the Grace of the Divine Mother was nevertheless active in my life. Still, for that Grace to act, I also had to do my part.
The epilogue to this story is that my grandmother passed away six months later, in the home of family, and I was able to be at her side at the end.
