couple of phone calls
world changed, changes, timing
leave the story to . . .
A year ago my life changed.
I logged into a zoom meeting for a work meeting and there was someone I had never met before already in the meeting.
She was introduced to me as a HR rep.
That, is rarely a good thing.
I was informed that after 20 years, my services were no longer needed, required or wanted by my company and that my employment by the company would end in three days.
That three days was up a year ago today.
Like I said, this type of information is rarely a good thing.
I am not stupid or at least I like to think that and evidence that this zoom meeting was coming had been evident for some time.
For one thing the company wasn’t making money like it used too.
And there was covid and that wasn’t helping much.
Much more to say and you all the know these stories but the point is I knew I was sitting on this economic track and I could see the train coming and if you going to sit on the track when the train comes …
But that’s my story for today, one year ago.
Most of the time, most of these stories, most often are most awful to read about and worse to experience.
And that would have been the case for me had I not, that very morning, had a conversation with another person with another company located in another place.
Like I said, I knew I was sitting on that track so I had been looking for ways to get off and I had applied for a job over on the coast of South Carolina.
Truth be told I was applying for any job, every job, anywhere and everywhere and this application went out to the coast of South Carolina as kind of ‘might as well’.
I had had several interviews with this place and actually was invited to visit the location and meet people but there was one person, a Vice President of the company, who wanted a face to face meeting with me and she was stuck in Toronto by Covid.
After months of waiting for Covid restrictions to change, this VP gave up and decided she would have to be okay with a phone interview and she called me THAT morning and we talked for over an hour.
It was such a nice conversation that when my wife left to go to the store, I told her that I halfway expected to get another call later that day about my job future.
Then I took part in that ZOOM meeting and was informed of a change in my job future.
Talk about conflicting feelings.
I called my wife to tell her that, yes, I did have a call about my job future but it wasn’t the news that I had hoped to get.
Still, overall, I had the feeling that something wonderfully weird was going on.
Something so wonderfully weird that I understood I was just a person in the story, not the person writing the story.
It got weirder in a wonderful way when that afternoon, a couple of hours after that zoom meeting, I did get another phone call from those nice people asking if I could schedule one more phone call for the next morning as the people at this place had one more question for me.
Nothing to lose, everything to gain, I told them to call anytime as my calendar was unexpectedly empty.
I was just in this story, not writing it.
The call I got the next day was a job offer.
The question the people had for me was, when can I start?
I said Monday.
They said take two weeks.
Two weeks and then move to the beach.
It has been a year since this all happened.
I still have to tell myself that this all really happened really.
It is a God thing, we like to say.
The peace that passes ALL UNDERSTANDING.
I am comfortable with that.
Some folks are maybe more comfortable with Rogers and Hammerstein and the thought expressed by Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music where she says, “Where the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.”
In my case, God didn’t just open a window, he came in with an electric drill and removed the entire Steelcase panel just like the guy in the movie, ‘Office Space.’
I want to ask why and what did I do to deserve this but I will keep quiet and keep those thoughts to myself.
I won’t ask questions but I will express my wonder and appreciation at being a part of this story.
I don’t know why but that doesn’t mean I will not say thank you.
Say thank you everyday if not every minute that I am living in this story.
It is a peace that passes ALL UNDERSTANDING.
The timing is beyond belief.
With my long known disregard of facts that might stand in the way of a good story, this is how it all went down.
This is how I ended up working at the beach.
This is how I ended being paid to live in a resort town.
It was and still is, a God Thing.
I thank God for it.
And I am content, amazed to have Him write my story.
