Pandemic Parables: Fortune Cookies
Pandemic Parables: Fortune Cookies
Kindness always moves me deeply.
In a previous Parable, “Frustration,” I mentioned a box that was delivered to me on St. George’s Day, April 23rd. It was sent by an integral member of the Storytelling community and was was filled with goodness.
And kindness.
Four hard to find rolls of toilet paper lay within; a cairn - a three stone rock marker used on trek trails to show you are on the right path; a bag of home made fortune cookies; and an affirming, encouraging, grace-filled note.
Part of this missive said: “I ... thought of you and your brothers and sisters on the front line, so I made homemade fortune cookies and put special fortunes in them. Please feel free to share with whomever you feel needs one.”
I sampled one. It was delicious, light, meltingly more-ish, with an aftertaste of something unusual. Almond essence probably, and maybe vanilla. The hand written fortune said “you will make a difference today.”
I couldn’t resist. I had a second one. It said: “you will make someone happy today.”
I hoped that both of those had been accomplished.
These fortune cookies were both scrumptious and uplifting. I popped each one into a perfectly sized ziplock snack bag in preparation for taking them in the next day to the hospital in Frederick, Maryland where I am working as a Resident Chaplain until the end of August.
Then I prayed over them that each would go to the right person and be a blessing to them, adding to the prayers of the friend who had sent them.
They were a hit!
I gave one to my fellow chaplain, the only one who works with me during the day on a Friday.
“A present? For me!” She said, thrilled as a child. “I’m saving it for later.”
And when she did eat it she declared it to be a heavenly morsel and heaped praise on the one who made it.
I left three others on the desks of the Chaplains who had staggered shifts over the coming weekend (we provide 24/7 coverage) then headed out the door on the way to my morning rounds.
I stopped to give one to the security officer at the front entrance who is particularly kind and compassionate to all who enter.
Two went to a couple of wonderful Hospice nurses who daily pour out love and compassion to the dying and their families.
One went to the cleaner on the third floor who has an angel ministry. She gathers statues of angels and gives them to patients and others that she thinks would benefit from such a touch. I have been a recipient of her largesse and knew it was a gift of love from the Lord.
She was thrilled by the fortune cookie.
So was the Jamaican janitor with the compassionate heart and kind eyes who works in the closed off isolation wing on the third floor that holds the virus patients.
I gave several to the nurses who work that isolation wing, including the nurse manager who oozes compassion and caring from every pore. Then I left a couple with a note for my friend, the Hospice nurse practitioner who has the virus and who is now being looked after by her fellow comrades.
There was one patient I knew had to have one. I left the isolation wing and headed to his room. I checked with the nurse for any allergies and then went in with my friend’s blessing-filled gift.
This patient had been married for a month shy of sixty years and was desperately missing his wife who had warned him to hurry back home to her soon.
It seemed as though the years melted from his face as he realized he was getting the very last cookie and it had been prayed over by the one who made it. For an instant I could see the man, the boy, that he had been.
He read the fortune, holding it in his wizened, shaking hands.
“You will be showered with blessings” it said. Followed by a small heart that all these handwritten messages had on them.
“I like that.” “He said. “The shower has already started.
I think I’ll phone my wife and tell her what just happened.”
As I left he was already dialing with a beatific smile on his face.
His wasn’t the only “fortune” that was incredibly apt.
A few people opened their cookies in front of me.
Their blessings said:
“Be kind to yourself.”
“Today you will give someone hope and comfort.”
“You will experience great joy today”.
Each recipient smiled deeply, and paused for a moment before saying they had been given the perfect message.
A message they needed to hear.
And for a moment you could see the kindness and love that had been baked into those treats wash over their tired faces and alleviate the stress that everyone in the hospital is feeling.
Buoyed by the joy of handing out those treats, the rest of my day was inspiring at times, emotionally difficult at others.
I was thrilled to have been invited for the first time to the Emergency Department “huddle” - a fifteen minute meeting where essential information is passed to the assembled staff. The Department Manager recognized what stress her team was under and wanted to help them in any way she could. I was tasked to pray at the end of the gathering, giving anyone who would prefer not to participate an opportunity to step away.
When the time came I told the large assembled team that I would not be at all offended if anyone didn’t want to stay.
Not one person moved.
It was my privilege and honor to pray for this exhausted group who are giving of their very essence to care for and try to revive the sick and the dying under very difficult virus-causing constraints.
I prayed and believed with all my heart that our gracious loving Lord will strengthen, guide, and guard them and their families.
That He will sustain them, and work through them, and make a way for them in their lives where there seems to be no way.
That he would provide for them and their families in abundant, unexpected ways.
And that they would feel His peace, grace, and love in the depths of their weary souls and be revived.
The ED manager asked me to come back and pray with them all daily, and I am deeply grateful that the 11.00am huddle will now be part of my daily schedule.
Then I had some difficult visits. Among them was a patient who had had an accident that caused him to lose his livelihood. Another who felt abandoned by the recent deaths of both father and spouse.
Then I met with two family members. They were grieving the loss of an elderly patient who had died minutes before, not long after the ambulance screeched to halt at the hospital. Their beloved relative had slipped away despite the best efforts of a highly trained team to save them.
Their grief was deep and real.
Getting ready to conduct a small, impromptu service to commit this patient’s spirit to the Almighty, I felt the love that had been baked into those fortune cookies wash over and sustain me.
God’s love.
I thought about the act of kindness that had gone into the planning, writing out the blessings, and making the cookies. The love and prayer that they had been bathed in.
And I was grateful.
It had been a tough week. I crawled home already anticipating the long lie in I could have the next day, Saturday morning.
There was another package outside my front door. A large one.
I do not want to cause jealousy but it was a pack of six extra sized rolls of Charmin toilet paper. It had been sent by a fellow storyteller who had heard about my lack of loo rolls.
A kind, big-hearted, generous fellow story teller.
God bless him big time Lord!
Such kindness! Where there was once a dearth, now there is abundance. So I gifted four I had bought at the hospital to my new neighbor who has hardly emerged during this pandemic and has been nowhere near a shop since self isolation began.
I thought once again about those fortune cookies.
Each cookie was like a stone that had been thrown in the water and the ripples were strong and endless.
The ripples continue to flow outward.
I love kindness. I love being inspired by kindness to be kind to others.
This pandemic season is a terrible time, but one that is also suffused with grace, generosity and love.
The best of times, the worst of times, as Dickens says.
We are all being tested. True character is on display. But we shall all get through with kindness made flesh, in whatever form is in our power to give.
That might be blessing-filled fortune cookies; the gift of a cairn; toilet paper; a phone call; a kind note; a drive by birthday celebration for a child.
We all have something we can do, give, say, that will create ripple-forming acts of kindness that soften the heart of the giver and enables the one gifted to know deep within themselves that God sees, knows, and loves them.
And in this way, together, we will emerge stronger, more compassionate - whole in soul, spirit, as well as body on the other side of this Coronavirus dark valley.
Lord, let it be so.
Amen!
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