Life is different for every person

I woke up to the delicious sound of a summer rain. This was no gentle tapping of raindrops gently watering the earth. Instead, it was the clash of water pelting everything in its path. The low rumble of thunder provided the background noise.

My mom used to say that thunder was the sound of angels bowling. I always thought it was the sound of clouds bumping into each other. No matter what it was called, the growl of thunder was the perfect counterpart to the rain. It was coming down hard enough that I could safely dismiss my to-do list for the day. I looked forward to curling up with a good book while the usual chores were justifiably ignored.

A couple of hours later the rain stopped and my goals for the day were back. I think I can safely put off repainting the porch swing but some of the other tasks are still waiting for their turn to be crossed off the list.

I didn’t used to make lists. I just did what needed to be done and thought list making was a waste of time. I didn’t know how satisfying it was to cross things off. Sometimes I even put simple chores on the list just for the satisfaction of crossing them off.

My thoughts turned to a chance encounter we had on Friday. We were in search of curtains and hadn’t found what we were looking for. We decided to grab some lunch and eat at a park we like.

We were about halfway through our lunch when a guy stopped by. He was carrying two backpacks, which he placed at the far end of the table. He took out a plastic bottle and went to a public fountain where he filled it up.

He came back to the table and pulled a coffee maker from one backpack. He plugged it into an outlet under the tabletop. We have been to that park many times and I had never known there was a public outlet there. He poured the water into the coffee maker and told us that it would only take five minutes to brew his coffee then he wouldn’t bother us any more. We assured him that he wasn’t bothering us in the least.

He was perched on the table waiting for his coffee to finish brewing when we left. We told him to have a nice day. He seemed startled that we offered the simple statement. I assume that he was homeless from the looks of him. I certainly hope he had some kind of shelter where he could keep dry during the morning’s rain storm.

We eventually found curtains we liked. Then we went to the grocery store and were shocked at how much we spent. I wondered how long it had been since the guy at the park had been grocery shopping. I wondered if he made his own to-do lists.

I did not ask him for his story. I felt that would be too personal. Besides, what if he wasn’t homeless and was just some random guy brewing coffee in a public park? We never really know what people are going through. I do hope he had shelter during the morning’s rain.