Something very special happened to me a few years ago that wouldn’t have come about if all things happened according to my plan. I was driving around Detroit, my hometown of over 40 years and the radio was on the main sports talk radio channel, WDFN. They were talking about the stanley cup making its final rounds of passing individually through each player, coach and other key personnel in the organization after the Red Wings won it all in 2001. I had lived in Detroit all my life and I’d followed the Wings for as long as I can remember starting back with ‘Hockey Night In Canada’ on CBC. I had never seen the cup other than on television or in magazines. It would have been really fun to be a part of that, but I had no idea of how or where to make it happen.
At the time, my wife Pam and I were living in Boulder, CO having left Michigan late in 2001. Our house was on the market and I would alternate weekends between living one week in Boulder and one in Michigan cleaning out and throwing out. Our pool table wouldn’t fit in our new place, so I sold it to my good friend and partner in our company Jochen, who was living with his beautiful family in Norwalk, OH near the main facility of our company.
Fast forward a week. During one of the weekends spent in Michigan, I rented a truck, disassembled the table and drove it down to him. There was a conference in San Jose that I was schedule to attend the following week and I had an early flight out on Tuesday morning. My plan was to work out of the Norwalk plant on Monday and catch a ride back up to Detroit with one of our salespeople. He would drop me off so I could pick up my car which I had left at my brother-in-law’s (Johnny) house, pack my bags, gets some rest and a get very early start for a long drive to Detroit metropolitan airport.
I didn’t plan well enough and remind my ride we needed to leave mid afternoon, nor did I ask our CEO, who my ride had to meet with, to take care of their business early. Not that it would have done any good. We left late afternoon over two hours later than I had planned and I wasn’t in a good mood. When I arrived to pick up my car, Johnny was there – which he would not have been had I arrived on time. Johnny was gracious enough to ask if I wanted to stay for dinner. I initially declined on the excuse I had to get going, pack and get ready for my early flight the next morning. Johnny pointed out I had to eat anyway, so I went into the house.
Ten minutes hadn’t passed and he asked “What I was doing at 9PM”. Now, I had already explained this to Johnny, but started to do so again about packing and early flight and all that when Johnny cut me off with “Doc Finley’s got the cup and invited us over……”. It was the last stop of the tour before it was sent home. I started at him with a blank look for a few seconds and said “……..I’ll sleep on the plane”.
I’ve always been type ‘A’. I’ve never liked waiting for things, standing in line, being stuck in traffic. My beautiful wife Pam was always telling me when she saw steam coming from one ear or the other ”you are where you’re supposed to be…..breathe”. I had just experienced another example of how “God works in mysterious ways..”.
Now this was a silly little thing in the overall scope of events in my life, but I allowed it to change me forever. Now when I’m in the middle of one of life’s traffic jams, I hear my wife’s voice, I pause to breathe, and I see one of these pictures in my mind and all is good with my world.
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