Saturday, February 28, 2026
(Part 7 of 7)
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Esa and Yodolkis
Behold, now is a very acceptable time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
On the trip home, a couple of heroes. At least for me. I called Esa to ask him for details about returning my Turo rental at the Wilmington airport. I told him where I was.
“Oh, that’s around the corner from our office. Drive over here and I’ll drive you back to the airport. That saves time for us both.” So I did.
It was good to meet the man behind the texts: “No worries. Stuff happens. Here’s my personal number if you need it.” My very very late 3 am arrival didn’t faze him. And now he was doing the driving when I was running out of time. I cleaned out the car as he walked over and got into the driver’ seat. Thank you!
Unlike the outgoing flights, these flights home stayed on time. On the way to Dallas I sat next to an athlete-size guy with 2 Corinthians 3:17 stenciled on his t-shirt.
Now the Lord is the Spirit,
And where the Spirit of the Lord is,
There is freedom.
He stayed busy, though, on his phone. Neither of us said a word. I didn’t feel disappointed; I have been talking so much, my mind filled with so many overlapping words for nearly a week. It was time to rest.
After an hour so in Dallas, resting in my slowly-becoming-familiar Club DFW, I waited … what, five minutes? The plane to Austin was on time. This time my seatmates were friendly, gregarious, full of questions … a young Montana high school history teacher and his wife, curious about my suggestions about how to spend their time in Austin. I told them about our three years of Friday Adventures with our grandsons, showed them pictures of Miles and Jasper. When we landed they wanted to help me get to the baggage pick-up, but I said I’d be fine.
I wasn’t exactly fine. The 1500 feet I walked (5-7 minutes?) took much longer. I just don’t walk very fast these days. My bag was one of just a few left on the conveyor. I had not used Lyft before to get home from the airport and gradually figured out where I needed to be … another long walk, this one unexpected, to the back of the second floor of the parking garage. My driver texted me, as the Lyft-allocated waiting time ran out, “Don’t worry, I not leave you!”
I texted him back. Thank you! Then a little later, Where are you?
Help!
Finally I took a selfie and sent it to him. A few minutes later he ran up to me, smiling. Pulling my luggage to his car, we got in, and soon he made it clear he spoke no English. No problem.
We listened to Hispanic music and watched his Corolla car screen scroll through pictures. No Google map. No Waze. No Apple map. No English, no map, no problem. I pointed at a street sign or two, and we made it to Evolve Apartments, to our front door. I appreciated his smile. And I guess I also appreciated his silence. Enough words for this very full week.
After the airport delays a week earlier, then easily retrieving my rental car at 4 am rather than 4 pm the day before, after pre-Lent mass with Mike and generous and joyful reunions with the Sandel family, after warm, welcoming visits with my friends Ron and Connie, then sushi, music, games and prayers with Bob and Ryoko, more plane rides, movies on the plane, one gin and tonic, feeling lost at midnight in the parking garage but rescued by my new Hispanic Lyft driver, who promised, “I not leave you, do not worry!” Now afer midnight, I unlocked our front door and walked right in.
This all felt like a miracle then, and it still does now. I sat for a bit on our remarkable $30, 25-year-old LazyBoy loveseat my friend Shannon and I brought from the Salvation Army five years ago, while Margaret’s repaired heart recovered in the hospital. Eventually I unpacked my bag. Smiled to myself. Home. Happiness runs.
The next day Margaret insisted I write down what I remembered – so many folks, friends new and old mostly smiling … so much I saw, heard, felt. Like one “skin” on top of another, this rich remembrance felt substantial now but soon it would fade, gradually forgotten and replaced by other “skins.”
And of course that is already coming to pass …
You are children of your heavenly Father,
who makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
(Deuteronomy 26, Psalm 119, 2 Corinthians 6, Matthew 5)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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