The Kindness of Strangers and the Goodness of God

If you know me at all, you probably know I can be a bit ditzy – AKA lost in space. When we were kids, my missing sense of direction was a family joke.

I frequently have dreams about being lost – countless variations on the same theme – but in recent years, there’s no anxiety attached, because I have learned I can rely on the kindness of strangers to get turned around right. 

On my first day of classes in Guadalajara, by pre-arrangement with the school, my homestay host Silvia walked with me to the train station and showed me how to buy my ticket and board (push!), then walk from the station to the school. She repeated the process for the ride home. 

The second day I was on my own, so I asked Silvia to draw a map – despite which, and with a fully charged phone in hand, I made several wrong turns. I asked five or six people for directions in my beginner Spanish as I bumbled along, but soon, nothing was corresponding to any of the maps. The last person I stopped was a man walking with two women. He told them he would meet them at their destination and walked a half mile out of his way to deliver me to the escuela. And I was on time for class!

Decades of experience with the goodness of God and people has led me to expect miracles – but not to count on them. The course itself is hard. As a matter of policy, neither teachers nor students are allowed to use a word of English – or for English learners, a word of Spanish – in class. My decades-ago beginner classes and months of Duolingo gave me a foothold for reading and writing, but almost no ability to speak or understand speech. I spend much of my class time lost in a stream of sounds and almost all my waking hours outside of class doing homework, which includes attempting to converse in Spanish with Silvia.  I failed the test on verb tenses at the end of the first week. 

So it’s back to the books, recordings, and hablando – but with a break this evening to listen to almost the only song I know in Spanish: Gracias a La Vida. It’s a beautiful, universal love song, a celebration of life, and a prayer of gratitude to the gracious God who is our Life, our Vida. And it’s my gift (regalo) to you today, in gratitude for all your loving support. 

The refrain, in inadequate English: “Thanks be to Life, which has given me so much.” Please listen to it, give thanks, and rejoice with me. To quote returning FMS missioner Joleen Johnson, “I am an ordinary person who has been given an extraordinary opportunity.” 

Questions for reflection: When have you experienced difficulty with directions? When have you received the kindness of a stranger?

Construction on the Cathedral Basilica de La Asuncion de Maria Santisima, where I went to Mass on my first Sunday here, began in 1561 and finished in 1618. These vases, placed throughout the church, are brand new, for the Jubilee Year of Hope that Pope Francis has declared.