See The Grace

We are constantly choosing what to focus on, whether we’re conscious about it or not.

What we choose to focus on can dramatically affect how we feel.

Last night I flew home from a weekend trip to San Diego. Now, when it comes to plans around my travel, I don’t mess around. I’m a PRODUCER for goodness’ sake, my work revolves around logistics like this.

I had planned on catching a light rail into Salt Lake City from the airport and then switching to the frontrunner train that would take me all the way down to Provo where I live. Simple enough.

I double-checked all of the specifics because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t landing too late for that plan to work. I say double-checked because I wanted to be sure that there wasn’t some weird Sunday schedule that would mess me up and leave me stranded at the airport.

I got off the plane, walked to the train stop at the end of the airport, and purchased a ticket.

Then, I saw it out of the corner of my eye, just as I was turning to walk out to the train.

A sign.

A little, folded sign with bolded words:

REMINDER: THE FRONTRUNNER TRAIN DOES NOT RUN ON SUNDAYS

Curse word.

I slumped into a chair in the waiting area. I looked at my watch. 10:15pm.

What am I going to do?

I went through a crazy 10 minutes of checking Lyft – $86 – then Uber – $122 (!!!) – then other bus schedules – didn’t leave until 12:35a – could I get to my grandparent’s house and stay there? Who could potentially drive me that would be awake and willing at this hour?

Ultimately, I found myself stuck. I took a breath, shook off the embarrassment of having my plan fall through, and tried again. Opened up the Lyft app again, and the price had magically dropped to less than $50. Amazing.

I ordered the Lyft and went outside to meet my driver, Vince.

We chatted the whole drive, which I was grateful for because a 45-minute drive with no- or bad conversation is torture. We got to talking about my work as a producer which led me to talk about Relative Race.

With about 15 minutes left and a strong desire to share the show with him – typically I just say “yeah, it’s at relativerace.com, check it out!” – I asked if he wanted to watch one of my favorite moments of the show, the start of Season 5 Episode 1.

We watched the introduction to my team, Marcus & Keith from Team Green, and then the ensuing events. (I’m keeping this post spoiler-free. You’re gonna have to watch the show!)

By the time we reached my house, he was hooked, and we sat in front of my driveway on the street for a good five minutes before I had the heart to pause it and end my ride home.

Vince, my driver, turned to me and said: “thank you, I really needed that”.

“No problem man, thanks for letting me share it with you!”

I got out, closed the door, then opened the back door to grab my bag. Vince turned back and stared at me with so much gratitude. I looked at him back, waited.

“I mean that, sincerely. When I say I really needed that… I haven’t told this to anyone.”

I took a breath and focused on being as present as possible with him.

He continued, “I lost my son last Saturday.”

I was shocked. “What are you even doing out here driving???”

“It’s the only way I can keep going. I have to work or else it’s too much. But this show…what you showed me… just, thank you. I needed it more than you know.”

I nodded, not sure what else to say. I ended up thanking him for sharing that with me, wished him a good night, and left a great review and note for him in the app as he drove off and I walked inside.

I’ll probably never see Vince again.

But think back to how my night started. It easily could have been what I focused on the rest of the night – the embarrassment, the frustration… but all I could think about as I dropped my bag in my room was how grateful I was to be placed in Vince’s path tonight. For him to share what he did with me. To be able to have that incredible experience.

All I could focus on was grace and gratitude.

There’s grace in everything if we choose to see it.