My beautiful friend Joy had a great idea a couple of days ago; “Let’s go to Winstar Casino today!” My friend Joy has an amazingly spontaneous spirit about her and I find it hard to resist her adventures so I responded in the way I always do, by saying “yes, and” to her suggestions.
“Yes, and let’s stop at your favorite breakfast restaurant on the way,” I offered.
Joy loves the Cracker Barrel. I am not sure if this is a childhood memory that she loves reliving or if she is just a fan of downhome southern cooking but nonetheless if we depart on a road trip Joy is always going to lobby to go to Cracker Barrel so I usually just acquiesce and join the Cracker Barrel party.
One hour later Joy and I loaded up the car and we were on our way for the one-hour drive up 35W heading north to Oklahoma for a day at the casino. Joy and I have fun wherever we go and pretty much in everything we do. We seldom let challenges ever diminish the fun we have. We have been stuck in a ditch on a mountain in Colorado, been rear ended in traffic in a major city in rush hour, wandered lost for hours on a road trip only to eventually find ourselves miles from our intended destination, and been stranded on an almost deserted island in the Turks and Caicos. However we never let it diminish our adventurous spirit. We always just look at each other and say, “How do we know this is supposed to be happening to us? Because it is! Let’s let the Universe guide us to an inspired adventure.”
In was in this spirit that we meandered to Cracker Barrel enroute to Winstar Casino in Oklahoma. Joy loves shopping for the trinkets inside Cracker Barrel but she loves the breakfast more. We sat down at our booth and we ordered Joy’s favorite breakfast: eggs, bacon, grits, biscuits and gravy and the cinnamon apples. The ironic thing about this breakfast is that Joy really doesn’t eat the bacon because every since she started drinking vegetable juice she no longer has a taste to eat meat however she forgets this each time she orders food and in most cases she realizes, “Oh yeah, I really don’t eat meat any more.” It is always fun watching Joy coming to these realizations each time we eat and each time she has the renewed realization all over again.
Joy and I sat talking while we were waiting for our food to arrive. We talked about about life and we talked about the Secret Blue Butterfly. We talked about changing the world one kind act at a time. We talking about how little things add up to big things and we talked about our dreams about making the Secret Blue Butterfly a worldwide phenomenon. It was in the light of these talks that we looked up and we saw three beautiful elderly women enjoying breakfast with each other and laughing and carrying on like three schoolgirls away from their parents for a weekend. It was so much fun to see that no matter how old we get we still are all fundamentally the same. We all long for community and we all long to be part of a tribe bigger than ourselves.
When our food arrived Joy was little like a kid at Christmas. Watching her dive in to her cinnamon apples is not unlike watching a 10-year old open their gifts on Christmas morning. Pure Joy lit up Joy’s face. Eating those apples is the sweet spot of life for Joy. Nothing else matters to her when she partakes in the cinnamon apples.
While I watch Joy I also thought of the three women sitting near us. Here were three friends doing what friends are meant to do; basking in their shared experience of this life. Joy and I smiled at the thought that friendship truly can last forever so we decided to do the thing that always brings us the most joy; we decided to pay for their breakfast without them knowing it was us.
We called over our waitress and we said, “We would like to buy those three women their breakfast.”
The waitress actually looked confused by this.
“You want to pay for their breakfast?”
Joy and I nodded.
“Why would you want to do that?” the waitress asked.
This question always surprises us. Joy and I always think, “Why wouldn’t we want to do this?” We think brining joy into the lives of others is the greatest gift we can give to another person. We always think that if we don’t do these things whom can we expect to do them?
The waitress brought us their check and we paid for their breakfast and then we left three Secret Blue Butterflies so that each of the women could have one. Then, we slipped out the restaurant undetected. We were like kindness ninjas that eased into the restaurant, let a little joy and then poof we were gone; like Santa on Christmas morning.
Joy and I skipped to the car feeling like little kids that just pulled over a prank on a neighbor. Doing kind acts for us is like the adult equivalent of toilet papering someone’s house as a kid, however unlike the toilet paper our kind acts bring unexpected joy to the recipient instead of the dread of cleaning up a messy prank.
We piled back in the car and true to form Joy did the driving. She always tells me that this is her gift to me. I don’t enjoy driving and she always tells me she would rather I just relax while she does the driving. This is why Joy is such a great friend. She gives that which she has in abundance and love always lights up her beautiful aura.
Once we were back in the car I asked Joy, “Have you ever been to Winstar?”
She told me she had but it had been more than 10 years since she had been there. She then told me the last time she was there was with her friend Chris. Now, I had never met Chris but I remember Joy telling me that Chris had passed away last year in a car accident. Christ was a type 1 diabetic (incidentally Joy’s 13 year old son is as well) and he had an unfortunately timed seizure while he was driving and then he tragically drove off of an highway overpass and he died. I remember how much this saddened Joy. She and Chris were adventure buddies. She told me they never had a romantic relationship but they both had the same adventurous spirit so they would be “partners in crime” by going on little expeditions.
I could feel the spirit of Chris with us as we drove but after we segued out of the conversation about him I kind of forgot about him. We finally arrived at Winstar and we bebopped into the casino. Right as we entered we were among the blinking, honking, bell ringing, colorful world of the slot machines. Joy looked up and spotted The Wheel of Fortune slot machine.
“That is the machine that Chris always played,” she told me nostalgically.
“Well, then that is the machine we are going to play,” I excitedly told her.
We walked over to the machine and Joy pulled out a $100 bill and sent it into the slot of the machine.
She hit the button and soon the machine was spinning to life. One spin, nothing. Two spins, not much better. On the third spin the machine crackled to life and beautiful Joy won $130. We literally jumped for “Joy” and we hugged.
“Chris is with you now,” I told her. “This is his way of saying hello.”
I could see tears form in Joy’s eyes. Sometimes truth has a way of sneaking up on you and Joy inherently knew in her heart that Chris was with her.
“Spin again,” I said to Joy.
She did and this time the machine said, “How about some more abundance in your life?” The machine lit up, made noise, turned the wheel and voila, $270 spilled out of the machine.”
Joy looked at me with absolute disbelief that was underscored by the profound belief that Chris actually was with her in this moment. Even I was surprised by two back to back jackpots. It wasn’t something I saw very frequently.
I looked at Joy and I said, “Well, if you spin one more time and win another jackpot there is no denying Chris is here with you.”
Joy didn’t respond and hit the button without a second thought. The machine turned and bells rang and there is was, $20 win! Joy had won almost $500 in the five minutes we were in the casino. Neither of us could deny what we just experienced and both of us knew that Chris was with Joy in this moment.
I turned to Joy and I said, “the real gift you just received isn’t the money that you won. The real gift is knowing that Chris is with you now and always will be.”
She smiled and said, “I think we can go home now. This was the reason for this trip.”
And because I love my travel buddy and because I always love to say, “yes, and” to her ideas I responded, “Yes, and I will take you to our favorite Italian restaurant when we get back home.”
My sweet friend Joy and I walked out of the casino a little richer in every area of our lives. As we were walking out of the casino we began talking about our next adventure. Joy and I are going to Europe to spread love and kindness during our trip.
“This money that I just won,” Joy said to me, “We are going to use it to do random acts of kindness when we are in Europe. It will be our tribute to my friend Chris.”
I can think of no better way to honor the life of someone we love, by giving back to the world in their name. Joy and I are blessed. We are blessed to spend time together, we are blessed by the abundance of the Universe and when we are blessed it is our job to give back.
Europe awaits us next. Chris always encouraged Joy to go to Paris because it was his favorite city in the world. This is where our journey will begin. We will spread love. We will spread kindness and we will meet the most loving people while we are there. We anxiously await the journey to unfold.
Rest well, sweet Chris, you are loved always and forever.
SB2
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