Once again, I woke up this morning feeling GREAT! I had a productive day yesterday and I am up at it again early this morning. Yes, I wanted to stay in the bed and sleep a little bit longer, but my urgency to tell you what happened to me yesterday just wouldn't let me sleep another wink.
I was in Barnes and Nobles working on a website for one of my clients. Everything seemed normal as usual. The coffee machine was screaming as if to say your cup is ready and there was a lot of chatter amongst people going on. While I was setting up my computers to get started I spotted an old man at the counter stirring his coffee. He glanced at me and summoned me to come over where he was. This seemed a bit strange to me and I thought I was seeing things so I stayed seated. Then he looks over at me again and summoned me once more. This time I went over. He looked down at my shirt (I had on my fraternity shirt) and said, "When an old man calls, you come see what he wants." He then shook my hand and I knew he was a Kappa. He begins to talk about what school he went to and the good ole days and then it began to happen. He looked me straight in the eye and asked me what my profession was. I told him I was a banker. He nodded and smiled. Then he asked me what I was doing at Barnes and Nobles. I was really working on websites but I told him I was writing before I knew it. He asked what I was writing. I explained to him that I was working on a novel of fiction. Now things started to get interested. He didn't ask me what the novel was about, he just looked at me and began to tell me about news paper he once ran The Birmingham World. At this point, I am thinking to myself, "This old fella is just talking to hear himself talk." After he gets into his story, he pulls up a chair where I was sitting and says, "Sit down here for a minute."
I had a lot of work to do and I really needed to get started, but I sat down because I was always taught that when old folk want to talk to you, there something that needed to be heard. He started telling me different stories about himself and the era (Civil Rights) in which he grew up in. He then gets deep into his story and looks at me with a conviction in his eyes. He stops in mid sentence, picks up my pen and says, "This is where the power lies. If you want to write about something, write about something meaningful. There are a lot of things that the younger generation needs to hear and this is the way to do it. I am a firm believer in the Master (God) and when he speaks I listen. I was on my way to Books a Million and my first mind told me to come here, but then my second mind told me to go there. I was told to always go with your first mind because that's the Master speaking to you. I think he sent me here for a reason. Now, write that down." I was speechless. I had a million thoughts running through my head. It was happening so fast that I couldn't respond to anything he said because right after he told me that he immediately began a conversation about his activity in the Civil Rights Movement.
We talked for about an hour and as we talked he would always say, "Write that down." I thought it was funny, but he was so serious. After our conversation he gave me his home number and cell number to call him anytime I needed something to write about. As he was leaving, he stopped in his steps, turned around looked me square in the eyes and said, "And the title of the book is going to be-He Who Understands, write that down." I was taken by all of this. Here I was just yesterday talking about finding my profession and now look what happened. When you let go and let God, things start to happen. I guess I was holding on to the fact that I wasn't a published author who has a book on the best sellers list and who didn't get paid monies for doing my work. But I realized yesterday that riches don't lie in the value of a dollar, but rather in the value of a person’s spirit. There are many people that have money, but are unhappy and then you have those who don't have much from society's point of view but are wealthy in spirit.
I will tell everyone that I didn't know we were poor until I got to college because my great grandmother kept us rich in spirit. And to correct myself, we were never poor and I will never be poor because my spirit is rich. Don't think that money defines being rich because it doesn't. Take a minute to reflect on the great moments in your life and ask yourself, "was money the reason for that moment being so GREAT?"
"Being rich with money is nothing like being wealthy in spirit"-K.J Swint
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