This is good

So there I was, waiting for the bus home, feeling sluggish because of an exhaustive round at my acupuncturist's. I leaned against the side of the bus shed, reading the latest issue of "Science of Mind Magazine", idly paging through the daily affirmations. I started reading the accompanying text for today's:

Sometimes it's easy to forget that there is only one volitional factor in the Universe, and that is Spirit.

Easy to believe when things go well. Instead of feeling abandoned by God when things don't go well, the article suggests we focus on the above-mentioned core truth - one power, one source:

Then we could say, "This must be good. It's all God, so let me look for the good."

As I read that, a wailing ambulance drove by. I continued to hear it for a while, remembering that a friend had said that because of having to drive in and out of streets to get to the urgent care entrance, which was within view from my bus stop, you could hear the ambulance all over the place. Another ambulance drove past and stopped at the end of our long bus turnout. Out jumped the two-person ambulance team: A man and a woman. They stood and discussed something for a bit, then the woman started walking towards us.

She looked first in one bus shed, then the next. Realizing whomever she was looking for was to be found in a bus shed, I turned and looked inside ours. I was a bit startled to see a man with a somewhat bloody nose sitting on the bench. I hadn't noticed him at all before. He didn't look all there but he didn't look too hurt, either, so I turned back and looked at the approaching woman. I wasn't sure if my guy was her guy so did nothing. She soon enough was at our shed, and yes, our man was the one she was looking for.

As she asked him if he'd fallen and hurt himself, it was very clear that he was in no condition to answer. An empty fifth of vodka lay on the ground next to him. The male of the ambulance team had now caught up and together he and his partner managed to drag the injured man to his feet and down the sidewalk. His feet were of barely any use to him. They headed slowly for the parked ambulance at the end of the block, lights still flashing, doors left wide open.

As I watched them, I tested what I had just read. I said to myself, "this is good," and immediately felt overwhelmed with gratitude. I was grateful that I live in a society where someone saw the man fall and called for an ambulance. Grateful that the ambulance people came and made the effort to look for the man. Grateful that they found him and took him with them. Grateful that in the meantime, the ambulance was left perfectly alone and unharmed (someone had stolen a police car from an accident scene a week or so earlier). Grateful that any of us could happen to get a little too falling-down drunk for our own good and still be cared about.

This is good. It is all good.