I have a dear friend who lives in Santa Barbara. She is a nurse with a special charism- she ministers to the dying. I would go as far as to say that she is a holy person, though she would never admit it. She is kind, loving, humble and prayerful. It is always a joy to visit her, which I did recently. Since Santa Barbara is a fair stretch I drove up late one day and spent the night in a motel so we could spend the next day together.<\/p>\n
I had found a very nice place to stay and after I checked in I realized I was hungry. I noticed a Gelson’s nearby, so I bundled myself up and hurriedly made my way to the market. I passed a small library and noticed a homeless man calmly sitting on the stoop. I made a cursory glance and something clicked in my consciousness. I don’t know what it was but I couldn’t get his image out of my mind.<\/p>\n
Gelson’s is a high end market, (perfect for Santa Barbara) and they have many cooked items and treats designed to make one’s mouth water. As I ladled out some thick, tasty soup my mind started to concentrate on dessert, (priorities!) Still, I couldn’t get the homeless man’s visage out of my mind. All of a sudden I realized what it was. I knew him. Whether I had met him years ago from a church or from my performing days, I knew not, but I knew him. I decided to get a bottle of water for him and since it was night I would pretend I didn’t recognize him, so as not to bring him embarrassment. On the way back to the inn I broke his reverie and asked him if he wanted the water. Gratefully he took it along with the couple of dollars I pressed into his hand. When I got back to my room I started eating while watching the television, (priorities!) I kept trying to remember him but it wouldn’t come to mind.<\/p>\n
After a hot bath I finished my rosary and went to bed. I said a prayer for the man. I slept fitfully for several hours until all of a sudden I woke up in the middle of the night and felt a presence in my room. A flood of emotion came over me because I knew in that moment… and I knew that I knew that I knew. I will never forget the experience. I laid back down and closed my eyes. I wish I had given him my soup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have a dear friend who lives in Santa Barbara. She is a nurse with a special charism- she ministers to the dying. I would go as far as to say that she is a holy person, though she would never admit it. She is kind, loving, humble and prayerful. It is always a joy to visit her, which I… (more…)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-santa-barbara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}