Have you ever wondered about how things come into your life? What was the purpose for it? What am I to learn from it? How does this all fit into the grand scheme of things?
I was not yet 21. I was living in Santa Monica at the time. In an apartment complex five blocks from the beach. I liked it okay, except for a creepy feeling sometimes like I was being watched. Even though I lived so close to the beach, it was as if I could never get there, because I was working all the time. I worked in an auto parts place in the heart of downtown L.A. The place where I met my husband. Driving that 10 frwy everyday was just one fun time after another, I tell you what!
Here I was, this young woman who looked 15, driving her El Camino, with a bushy bon hairdo, 5’4” and 115 lbs. Really, no match for that jungle out there all by myself. Yet, I was. I was capable. I started living on my own when I was just seventeen, a month before my next birthday, after convincing the landlady I was reliable.
I was brave without knowing what bravery meant then. I mean, yeah, I’ve watched movies about bravery and understood others to be brave. But, me? I just wanted to live my life from day-to-day, take it all in, all the while wondering and trying to figure out where in the world am I headed in this life?
I lived on the second floor of that two-story apartment complex. I had to go downstairs to do my laundry. I would always wait and do laundry during the week, during the day. It felt safer to me than evening. This one time as I went to take my clothes out of the dryer, there under the lint door was a folded up note. It startled me for a few seconds, as I looked around, trying to see if anyone was watching me.
I opened that note and written in orange crayon were the words scribbled, ‘I love you’. And a happy face!
I’ve thought and pondered about that note sometimes. Why orange? Why did whomever wrote it choose the color orange? Was it their favorite color? Or was it the closest thing on hand at the time to write with? What was the purpose for it all?
Really?! How did this fit into who I am, where I was going, and for why? Maybe just so years later I will remember that day and write about it to share with others? Or, maybe, to just take it as it was given, a note telling me I am loved?
To this day I do not know who put it there or if it was even really intended for me. But, I do know one thing, it made me even more aware of my surroundings and to take note of my intuition about others.
And that is my story. All because of what was written in orange.
