Life is Good

It couldn't have been a better day! Sunny, warm, starting in San Francisco on my way to Fremont by BART for Fr. Jerry Orbos' 12 noon mass at St. James Apostle Catholic Church. (Fr. Jerry, as he's fondly called, is in town to say 3 healing masses in the bay area this weekend.)

Then, a funny thing happened on the way to Fremont. I remembered something. I remembered that I forgot something - I left my bus directions to the church at home, and there were several buses that went to St. James'. Darn!

Coming out of the BART stop, I saw an AC Transit guide. Thank God! I asked where the bus stop was for my particular route. She didn't know, "There's a post there. Look for it." (nge hu!)... I went and saw that it was a different schedule than what I read at home, so I went back to the guide to ask about the scheduling. She didn't know. "Look on the post. It's there." ("Nge hu!", Gosh!)... A bus was arriving and stopped right where I was. I asked the driver if she was going to St. James Catholic Church in Fremont Blvd. She didn't know. ("Nge hu!", C'mon!) She said she was stopping at a church which she thought the name was "Holy Spirit". (God, I don't need the Holy Spirit. I mean, I adore the Holy Spirit, hey, remember, I came from College of the Holy Spirit. But I don't need Holy Spirit Church. Fr. Orbos is not there. I need St. James Catholic Church!) Bus driver said I just missed the #99 which left 10 minutes ago and the next one coming is in an hour?!

Needless to say, I missed my bus, all my buses. I took a cab, the driver didn't take credit cards, we stopped by an ATM, seemed like forever... In short, I was late for mass! There were sooooo many people, all the Filipinos of South Bay must have been there! By the time mass was over and I was able to get inside the church, Fr. Jerry was nowhere to be found. I looked and looked, went outside again and all of a sudden, yes, all of a sudden, someone calls my name. Guess who? (no more "Nge hu!") Leonora, my co-pilgrim! Is that a miracle or what?! Who would even expect she'd be there! She and her husband, Mark, already went to the San Francisco mass the night before! Yes, she and Mark went to Fremont the next day just to give Fr. Jerry a bottle of wine! They, too, were looking for Fr. Jerry. And we saw each other amidst all the crowd - How miraculous is that?! We finally found Fr. Jerry. He was swamped! Despite that, he asked to be excused just to have time with us. It was short since everybody wanted to have pictures with him, but he made time just to bless us. How touching is that, how fortunate for us - WOW!!

After that, Mark and Leonora had all the time to spend with me. They even offered to bring me home. Can you imagine how I was going back to BART if I didn't see them at church? Mark said I had to call for a cab as there were no cabs there. I wouldn't know what bus to take going back as I never took the bus leaving the station! Plus they only came every hour...

The three of us decided to have lunch and this time, I was going to treat them in gratitude. After all, with the whole incident so serendipitous?! But they treated me instead. Then they brought me back to San Francisco - Wow, what'd I do to deserve all that!

What could I say? What more could I ask? Looking back, yes, it couldn't have been a better day today! With all the inconveniences early on, I was simply gonna take things as they come... and all of a sudden, things turned around. Look what happened - Incredible!

True, life has its challenges, big or small, its ups and downs, hills and valleys, sometimes it can get messy, and so on, but in the end, things do fall into place - Always!! EVERYTHING FALLS INTO PLACE.

Life is good. God is good... GOD IS GREAT!


Thank you, Lord.