It was the afternoon of March 6, 1999 and I almost died… by drowning… oh, and by putting my left foot on backwards. Got caught in some huge waves off the beach in '”old town” Puerto Vallarta. That’s a rather long story for today… but the part I want to share with you, is what I learned. I came away with a whole new appreciation for waking up each morning and I learned that all those things that had seemed so critical… weren’t. It kind of changed my perspective on a lot of things. But that’s not what I want to share with you either. I’m responding to the urge to tell you about a woman named Padyavallee (n/k spelling but that’s how it sounds). I met her on the airplane, flying home from LAX. We had both boarded early; me because I was in a wheel chair with my very broken, casted leg stuck out front, and she… well I never did know why. I never asked. My good fortune was that she was right across the aisle from me. I had the aisle seat and Kathy and my leg shared the other two seats… We’d been lucky enough to meet someone in PV who knew someone in the airlines… and well, didn’t we end up with three seats all to ourselves and free vodka for that leg of our journey :-) But I digress.
As our flight continued north to the cold land, we were watching TV. I had no idea how many commercials have large waves in them… and I whispered that very thing to Kathy and explained how every time I saw a wave I was instantly transported back into ‘mine’. Not too long later, I was chatting with this woman across the aisle from me. She was slight of build and dressed in East Indian garb, but she was Caucasian and explained she was heading home to North Van… having been studying in New Delhi. She told me that her sister had tripped and landed on her face on a sidewalk and injured herself quite badly… and that she had flashbacks for a while, but they had faded. I asked her how she knew I was having flashbacks and she just smiled and sat back to rest. Later in the flight we spoke again. This time I told her about my accident and about how close I had come to dying. To that she responded: “You know, life is like a drop of water on the edge of a leaf”. That one rocked me. So simple, yet so profound. This time I sat back to consider the image. And finally, as we neared the end of the journey, we spoke again. This time I told her I’d figured out that I probably wouldn’t be getting back to work anytime soon and that, if I had to miss a chunk of time at work, this was probably a good time… 'cuz I had a boss that was ruining my work place and I was so angry with him I was pretty close to giving him a shove that would land me in jail…. And to that…. she replied…. “Sometimes when it rains… it just makes things greener.”
This flight, this woman and her pearls of wisdom, have stayed with me ever since. I’ve shared them from time to time but last night, listening to the rains pour down and remembering how beautiful, fragrant and fresh the streets of Mazatlan were after the last downpour, I was reminded of Padyavallee and I wanted to share. I hope you’ve enjoyed and will gain value from this wisdom as I have. This rain in Mazatlan has most definitely “made things greener”.
Adios… CJ
