Day 20: I Can See Clearly Now . . . Jan. 26

No, this is not a close up of the eye of a fly - it is our headlight. Before, they were OPAQUE AND YELLOW.  There was so much build up on the plastic you literally could not see the lights! 

 I got out of the car at Hobby Lobby and a young man, maybe between 16 and 19 came up to me and began telling me about my lights and how it was dangerous to have them in this condition and I may not be able to pass a safety inspection and that he could clean them for me. I listened politely as I unbuckled Iosepa.  He offered to clean just a small portion of the light.  I told him I didn't think I had any cash on me - I never do - He said the auto mechanic stores charge $32 to clean them, but he was willing to do it for $10. He cleaned a small section, maybe a third of the headlight. It did look a million times better.

Normally, I would have declined his offer, but something inside me told me I needed to try. I unlocked the car door I had just closed, with Iosepa in one arm, searched with the other and found a $10 bill in our change drawer. This in itself was a miracle.  We usually only keep coins and a few dollars.

I felt very strongly that if someone is trying to work - you should support them. "Okay," I said and gave him the money. Then he told me that it was $10 for EACH headlight. My jaw almost fell to the yellow line of my parking space. "Entonces, no. No puedo." I can't pay that much. I explained that I don't work and my husband doesn't work very much either. In fact, Dave would probably think it a waste to spend $10 let alone $20 just for the headlights. I apologized. He, obviously wanting to make some profit, agreed to do the job for $10 "porque me cae bien" which means, "you fell well with me" or in other words "I like you as a person."

All in all, I'm sure he was trying to swindle me, but for some reason I sincerely felt I needed to do it.  I was in a hurry and instead of staying - I did something even crazier - I handed him the $10 and said, "I trust you to finish." Needless to say, I was a little anxious to get back to the car.  When I returned I found that he had done a great job with both headlights.

 I'm grateful to be able to interact with complete strangers.  I am grateful I trusted my intuition and a person I did not know from Adam was honest enough to come through on his part of the deal.  Humanity is a beautiful thing.