Whats in a moment?

The stranger approached, “I’ll take one of your ‘wet wipe’ paks,” he said, as he handed me a $5 bill.

I thought I had the necessary change but the $4 was nowhere to be found.

I then said to the man, “Look, I don’t have enough change but I can see your need, here, take it and let’s not worry about it.”

His response was immediate, spontaneous and pure. “No, no,” he said. “You keep the change, I can see that you work hard to earn a dollar, please keep it.”

My protests fell on deaf ears.

I have since reflected. I could have given him more of the item or something else to compensate but the moment transcended all such trivialities.

We had a moment, that stranger and me.
(When saw we thee........?)

Now I pray for moments.

Aloha,
Papanui the story teller
Aaron T Watene
Sept. 20, 2009