"Hello!"
"Hi. How are you?"
"Fine. The groceries will be delivered within a couple of minutes."
"Wow. Thanks a lot for your generous sharing. I do appreciate your kindness."
"With pleasure. I am happy to hear that you like it."
Upon receiving a phone call from Mike, I bring a cart near the front door to be ready to load the food items into it.
Once a week, around noon on Friday, various food items are delivered to our community with the help of his "errand angels." Grocery items include milk, eggs, orange juice, spinach, tangerines, red velvet cake, some chips, etc.
Mike is a blind man with warm-hearted kindness who enjoys sharing things with others.
His willingness to share was inspired by an accidental glance. One day, when his family was passing by our Pauline Books & Media Center on Watson Road in Saint Louis, Missouri, they noticed the special name, Pauline, which was the same name as their mother's who passed away. For them, it was a very memorable and special encounter.
Since then, in memory of his mother, Pauline, Mike has donated some food to our community. And now his kind gesture of love has become a regular habit of sharing.
I am so glad and grateful to the couple, who are not blind, who do the shopping and deliver it in a van on time on behalf of Mike.
Being blind but open-minded, so many gentle gestures of love are passed around to others. Being blind doesn't mean that the heart is closed. The inner eye can widely open and appreciate the beauty of sharing.
One evening, our postulant group prepared a recreational activity with a Pinata. The word pinata derives from the Italian pignatta, which means fragile pot. Originally, it was a container made of pottery or cloth, filled with treats such as candies or chocolates.
During our recreational fun, each of us had to strike a cardboard box hanging from the ceiling of the conference room. We were guided to strike this box blindfolded with a handkerchief. The box was moving up and down, front and back, left and right.
When a person pulls up the string tied to the box, the box also goes up. Then, we can strike it with a stick in vain and wonder about it like a blind person in the dark.
With one's eyes closed, it is not easy to hit the target. Thus, we often make useless efforts. Being blindfolded, we cannot but face unexpected inconveniences. Nevertheless, beyond obstacles and uncomfortable situations, some blind people think of other ways to be happy and to do good for others.
There are some games like hide and seek that we can experience the inconvenience of being blind. We all might have experienced that writing a letter or drawing something with our eyes closed brings about funny and different results.
What a joy it would be when the eyes of the blind recover sight and are widely opened! "The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them." (Matthew 11:5)
The author is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul. Please feel free to visit her blog "A piece of sunshine" at mtorchid88.blogspot.com.