I had a neat encounter today that I want to share. It's one of those seemingly arbitrary occurrences that has left me inspired and thoughtful. First, I must share a bit of the back-story, and I'll try to be brief and succinct.

My kindergartner came home with lice a few weeks ago. For anyone who has had to deal with these pests, you know it's not fun, for parent or child. It involves treatment that takes no less than 2 hours on short hair, then for me it was a trip to the laundromat to wash and dry everything in the house in hot water. Anything else needs to be bagged up and put away for two weeks. Then it's continuous laundry for weeks, re-treatment every 7-10 days...it's a nightmare. I have friends that went through it last year and I've realized that lice is something pretty much every mom is going to have to deal with at some point.

Three or four weeks later the pesky invaders have found their way to my third grader's head, and her hair is twice as long and three times as thick as my 5-year old. They were discovered on the evening my husband went on a 6-day vacation, so it's all on me. Pulling myself up by my bootstraps, we start the treatment (takes much longer on this mane of hair!), start the laundry, and start vacuuming everything. Momentum has taken over and I'm grateful for the lose schedule that comes along with my husband being out of town. Then the dryer broke.

I set the timer, pressed the button to make it start, and the button pops right back out. How, oh how, am I going to stay on top of this mess without a working dryer? Remembering when my washer was broken and I wound up paying a repairman $85 to literally tighten a screw on the lid, I thought I'd explore the issue myself. Ironically enough, I was talking to my husband on the phone from his cruise ship when I zapped myself. Not static electricity like my husband thought, a jolt of electricity shot through my body. Not fun. Not a huge deal, but not fun. Enough to make me call the repairman so I can keep this circus rolling.

When I called to set up the service call they tried to convince me that the dinosaur of a dryer might not be worth fixing. Not ready to shell out the hundreds of dollars for a new machine a week and a half after Christmas, I set up the call for today.

The repairman had a really cool accent, was probably in his early sixties, and was sort of handsome if I'm being honest. Turns out he was from some little country around the vicinity of Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. I'm always curious how these men, skilled with machines, end up at my doorstep. Where has their life path been that has led them to my house this particular day? Anyway, I led him to the laundry room and began explaining the problem.

Low and behold, I set the timer, pressed the button, and the damn dryer was working just fine. Button stayed in, everything sounded like normal, I couldn't believe it. Who in heaven is teasing me when I need to be doing laundry?! Why didn't I continue to check it throughout the day while waiting for this guy to show up? What is it with the washer and dryer that is sucking my dry, one service call charge at a time?

So with a grin on his face and that cool little accent, the repairman says:
"You are lucky. You are lucky, and I am lucky too. First you are lucky because you don't have a broken dryer anymore. Second you are lucky because you did not hurt yourself when you got shocked. I am lucky because I don't have to do work on your dryer. We are both lucky because we have God and God loves us."

At that moment I just opened my heart to what was happening. He was right. He was right by all accounts. He charged me $40 instead of the $60 trip charge and assured me if he had to come back to repair the dryer there would not be another trip charge. I understand that he works for a company that has overhead and was on a schedule and came to my house--to see me turn on my dryer. I do understand it. But instead of thinking about what I could have done with that $40 if only--if only what? Who knows why my dryer decided to start working again. All I know is I was standing there with a complete stranger in my laundry room talking about how God listens when you talk to him. And maybe it took me going through all that...heck, maybe even the lice, to really have that resonate with me.

I believe in God and I believe he listens, but I don't talk that much. Now, people believe in a lot of different things. The message I'm trying to get across is, in times of stress and chaos, we all need to slow down. We need to pause, and breathe, and ask for the guidance that we need. Whether it's a higher being or our own spirit...if we take the time to ask the question and then remain open to receiving the answer, it will come.

Today I wasn't asking why the kids have lice or why the appliances keep breaking down. I was asking how I make sense of the seemingly constant frustration and things not going according to plan. I was asking for guidance through these challenges so I can have peace in my nutty, whirlwind days. I was grateful to have this man knock on my front door today. And I'm grateful that my dryer works again. Next up--the electrician. A lamp blew up this evening and I've had it with my scary, shotty sockets. I wonder what I'll learn from him!

peace, love, and warm, fuzzy blankets just out of the dryer...