It was a really rainy day and I wasn’t paying any attention to what was going on outside my window. I guess I was staring at the smaller window of the computer screen. Midday I had to go outside to meet someone for lunch. I took the elevator down and looked outside. Pouring rain. And no umbrella.

If I’d only paid a little attention. If maybe I’d even checked the weather forecast before I left home. But no. Always in a hurry. Dashing here and there. Totally oblivious. I didn’t have an umbrella in my office. Didn’t have a raincoat. I could see myself turning up at the lunch meeting as wet as a drowned rat.

In our building in New York, GUIDEPOSTS’ editorial offices are on the 21st floor. And here I was down in the lobby, staring at rain. Florence is the lady at the desk in the lobby and I figured maybe she would have some suggestions. “Florence,” I asked, “where is a place I can buy an umbrella?”

“Borrow mine,” she said.

“Don’t you need it?” I said.

“Not until 4:00 when I leave.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Of course.” She handed me the biggest, widest, sturdiest umbrella I’d ever seen. “Take it.”

I did. It was a Godsend. I arrived on time for my lunch meeting, perfectly dry. I didn’t even leave it at the restaurant (why are umbrellas so easy to leave behind?). I returned it to Florence with greatest appreciation.

Sometimes it is the kindness that you least expect that makes for a perfect day—even if the weather is awful.

Rick Hamlin is the executive editor at GUIDEPOSTS.

Author

  • Rick Hamlin is the recently retired executive editor of Guideposts magazine, where he worked for more than thirty years and continues to contribute regularly to Guideposts.org. He is the author of several books on prayer, including Finding God on the A Train, Ten Prayers You Can’t Live Without, and Pray for Me. Rick has also published three novels and a history of the Rose Bowl, The Tournament of Roses. A Pasadena native, he now lives in New York City with his wife, writer Carol Wallace.