Twelve years ago, I had stopped working because of fatigue from the Multiple Sclerosis I was diagnosed with and decided to apply to Social Security for permanent disability, which could take eighteen month to several years to be approved. Just a few months earlier I had separated from my wife, for reasons other than my MS, and purchased an old row house in Baltimore City that needed much repair, but was a roof over my head. It was far from being an ideal situation but one I thought I could handle, even though I always had a good paying job and never lived anywhere but the affluent suburbs of northern Baltimore County, Maryland.
To supplement my reduction in income I was working a few hours a day and receiving a small allotment of food stamps each month, both of which never seemed to be enough to cover just the basics I needed. After a few months things were not looking good and I my first thought was to wonder if my decision to stop working had been a good one. But when I stopped and thought about the spiritual program I had been a part of for the last ten years I continued to live one day at a time.
Going to the grocery store was always a worrisome time, and one particular April I had used all but a nineteen dollars’ worth of my food stamps by the fifteenth of the month. I filled my cart with boxes of macaroni and cheese and other very inexpensive items knowing they would have to last for two weeks. When I got to the checker I was very nervous watching my total rise on the register as she scanned each item. As the conveyor belt brought the last few items toward her a twenty dollar bill came out from under the counter and landed at the end of my groceries.
I said to the checker, "this must be yours."
She shook her head and said, "I guess your groceries are free today."
I looked at the total and it was exactly twenty dollars.
Call it luck or whatever you like, but I truly believe my Higher Power had taken care of me again.
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