One Moment of Clarity

 

My pre-teenage daughter and I were walking back from the beach mid-afternoon through the over commercialized touristy section of Virginia Beach.  She dragged me into one of the many t-shirt, beach towel shops along the way.
After all she was a part of this vacation too. 

There was a lady pushing a wheel chair.  The body of the lady in the chair was twisted and mangled, and it was doubtful if her voice capacity was any more than a few singular syllable primal grunts.  It was obvious that she was totally dependent on the caregiver that pushed her around.

It was one of those moments when you silently cried out to God or the universe with a repetition of whys.  My plea must have been heard.  Time seemed to come to a stop as the room seemed to separate into everyone else and myself and the lady in the wheelchair.  Other than our two souls the remainder of the room overcrowded with shoppers and so much noise became a low whining buzz, as if barely audible around us.  At that moment our eyes met, but more than our eyes, our souls met.  There was a communication deeper than any words could ever convey.  The woman in the chair in that horrible shell of a body spoke volumes in her message to me.  She was an advanced soul volunteering herself in this manner to teach compassion to her caregiver and all that encountered her.  This revelation came with such a knowing.  It was not a situation I broke down by any means of thought.  So, there was a reason to atrocities such as this, at least in this case.

Suddenly, time began again, and the room returned to the state of reality we are accustomed to, or at least the dream we have conditioned ourselves to be in.  There was again a high volume of noise and people pushing past each other, and the caregiver pushed the lady on.