Couch Carcasses & God-Breezes

As I was driving home along 360 today, I kept my eyes open to see where that damn couch ended up. I really did hit it and its sad, pathetic carcass ended up shoved off on the edge of the Trinity/Riverside exit. One arm had been ripped off totally and stuffing was poking out from the seat cushions and the missing arm. I felt validated that the entire episode really had happened and it wasn’t me hallucinating due to sleep deprivation.....


So, three weeks ago today I was driving home from Arlington, much less eventfully I might add. It was about 5pm. Traffic was its usual metroplex nastiness, and I experienced one of those nagging thoughts. Do you ever get those? One that just worms its way in and usually starts off with “I really should....” So as I was headed home I kept thinking “I really should go by Payless Shoes,” and “I really should go by the Payless Shoes that’s by the house.” There are two others that I pass on this route home, but that nagging urge wasn’t directing me to either of those. For a bit of context, I don’t typically shop at Payless Shoes. I’m a bit more of a Dillard’s girl myself, or OnlineShoes.com. So for me to want to go to a Payless Shoes is shall we say, out-of-character. By the time I got to our neighborhood it was about 5:30pm and Michael was still driving home, so I decided to just go around the corner & stick my head in. I had thought I might look for a pair of sneakers for Tabitha and if there wasn’t anything then I’d just zip back home.

So Guess What!?!?!

I walked in and the two shop girls were busy marking down a bunch of clearance shoes. I took a quick look, found a pair of sneakers for Tabitha, and as I was headed up front to pay, I stopped and actually looked at one of the pairs that were marked down. They were a pair of very sturdy mary-janes in an uninspired navy color. Then I actually looked at the price and realized that this $20 pair of shoes was marked down to $5!! So in the next 15 minutes I had both girls helping me grab 14 pairs of boys’ leather boots and girls’ mary-jane shoes to buy for the humanitarian aid bag we needed to fill for this second trip. I was able to get a mix of bigger kids sizes and a couple of adult sizes too (for the teenagers). So five bags of shoes later I was headed home. I was a little stunned at how quickly that shopping trip occurred, but as I drove home I realized that what I had experienced was what someone I know refers to as “God-Breezes”. That’s where in a moment of open-mindedness an answer suddenly appears. Sometimes attributed to “gut-instinct” or “intuition” I’ve been the recipient quite a few times in the past. As the years go by, I’ve learned to pay attention when they happen. As I got home, Michael was just pulling in ahead of me. He was floored when he opened up the back of the jeep and saw all those shoe boxes. So he helped me tie each pair of shoes together and then load up the teal duffle that has been nick-named “The Gladney Bag.” As we worked and I told him about how it was that I had been in the right place at the right time, he just looked at me and said “If you ever have one of those thoughts and it involves lotto numbers, stop what you’re doing and go get a ticket immediately!” All joking aside, I really do think that this time it was a “God-Breeze” because I had been worried about how we were going to stock another big bag of aid for this trip. The orphanage director requested “shoes, socks & underwear” specifically and I really had been agonizing over how we were going to be able to afford to fill up that bag since the shoes they needed really are not cheap. Just goes to show that patience is a virtue and sometimes when “Ye ask, ye shall receive”. I ended up with nearly $300 worth of solid leather shoes for $80, and this is what the bag looks like now instead of being empty.... There’s still a bit of room for socks and underwear though....