an urban miracle...

do you understand what just happened here? i don't...
it is an urban miracle...

i had just babysat 5 year old amazing Emma- went to the library and read books and laughed and were just so silly...

after spending time with her lovely family, i left feeling so happy, blessed to have them, and people like them in my journey to a simple life...

i stopped at the store that was still open, luckily... i wanted to make a kale salad, my body craving some good green veggie-ness...

i waited for the owner to grab some from the back, and it wasn't lookin so nice, so i apologized, and accepted that i'd get some tomorrow instead...

i came back outside, my unlocked bike still there- but wait.... the bag inside my basket was lookin different...

my pouch that is ALWAYS around my waist, but not this time... this time i left it in my bag... and it was gone...

thank god my beloved Tibetan singing bowl, bought in India and blessed with water from the holy goddess river the ganga, it was still there.

but my pouch... tucked inside my hat, gone.

after moments of shock, and disbelief, then moments of acceptance, well, i guess i had no choice but to keep movin’ on, that’s how life flows.... so i continued walking...down the street, with my bike... alone in the empty streets of Kensington Market... my hood... thinking over what i am now missing, dwelling a bit over my 'losses', largely my emotional attachment to those things.

How ironic i just made a little bit of money babysitting, only to lose a significant amount more moments later...

and my recently Sunday afternoon acquired $110 bicycle fine, for riding the ‘wrong’ direction on the one-way commonly jaywalked and danced upon Augusta street in Kensington market... also gone...

i turn the corner, eyes open.... and wait... in that nooked building’s entryway i see my hat, and box of copycat tic-tacs... strewn on the ground! i look around, and check to see if i can enter, its open so i walk up the stairs only to realize that c’mon… i can't really start knocking on these doors, what are the realistic chances that the thief lives here?

so i leave again, carry on... feeling somewhat happy to know that, well... i guess I’m on the same path this thief character was on... plus i got my hat back, feeling a little less violated, more calm... no choice but to accept….

i do remember looking out the window while in the veggie store, seeing a man walk by... i couldn't see his hands... was it him?

i can't believe this happened, this has never happened to me before, i guess i should've known better, obviously...

but i live here, i know this neighborhood, completely.

i know it can be dodgy... but i still trust it.

what are the chances someone will actually steal from you?

well, lesson received, that sucks.

i keep walking, at least i have a warm home to go home to, its getting cold out here, and lets be honest, anyone who is stealing, is in some sort of tough state in their life, and with the cold elements of this powerful earth, that state becomes more difficult….

it is the 6th night of Chanukah today, my candles are set up at home on my tomato-tin- can-turned-menorah, ready to be lit and have these blessed moments of prayer i am thankful to take... for me, and for those who i can also pray for...

and low and behold, there, on the synagogue grounds in front of me, is my pouch, thank the gods... for real i guess…

WOW, i am so thankful to get it back, i love it for the memories it contains, of months of time spent in India, praying, being humbled, being thankful....what a blessing to have it back!

as i look inside, i realize... that nothing is even gone... there are bits and pieces of mine scattered around close by... but as i compile them, i realize that it is all there....

they didn't take my bank or visa cards, or my beautiful tibetan silk money purse reminiscent of monumental life lessons learned from my friends, Buddhist monks from Burma, it is infused also with memories of prayer and sunset meditation in the monastery where i once shared space with the dalai llama...

they didn't even take the $100 i gratefully received two days earlier for my birthday....

it was ALL there....

how did this happen?

why didn't they take anything? i mean...like, at least take it.... why did you not take the money???

I sat down, I could not believe it, what just happened here…. I needed to take these moments to just be…. and breathe… in amazement…

i am so blessed... i am on social assistance right now, i had just babysat this lovely girl whom i love, to keep me afloat. And that money in my pouch was a birthday gift from people who are truly like my family.

Why did they not take the money, why did they not take anything?

I am totally confused, and completely blessed.

It proves how blessed i am, i am so thankful, i am so humbled.

it taught me and reminded me not so much to be more careful, to be more skeptical, or fearful of others, although lessons were learned... but more so, i learned that having faith, and being so thankful and really feeling your blessings is so important in this life.

wow, i am still completely in shock.

I don't understand what just happened here...

but it did.

An urban miracle…