I have a tragic but humbling and astonishing story to tell
you all about the threads of karma that we have recently experienced.
Sometime about 1994 we had moved to the California coast to start a new life. We had two toddlers and one small infant, and ended up homeless and living on the beach. It was not so bad, the weather was okay, we had plenty of food and supplies, but the housing search there was awful, so it was just a long campout.
Well, we had a pup tent that ended up getting left at our house the year before by someone who hitched a ride to an medieval event with is. We asked everyone who is belonged to and no one claimed ownership. So, after a year we just used it and it became our primary residence on this beach, small but homey.
One day I was approached on the beach by a kid I knew from where we used to live that was in the area looking at colleges with his mother. It was a happenstance meeting and a bit out of the blue. So I invited him back to our camp for a cup of tea and to get out of the wind.
Lo and behold, as we walked past the dunes into our camp, his mother exclaimed “Oh there is our tent! I was wondering what happened to it.” I looked at the kid and reminded him that I had asked him several times if it was his and he denied it. He gave a sheepish grin and said “Oh, I guess I forgot” So, his mother said “I’m glad we ran into you, we need that tent for a camping trip next week.” While trying to contain my anger I pointed out that we are currently living in that tent and she would be taking our shelter. She replied “Yeah, but it is our tent.”
With abject humiliation, we emptied the tent and packed it up for her.
Fast forward 24 years later, we are approached by a lady begging for help to stop or delay an auction on a parcel of land owned by an elderly man who let her board her horses there. We helped her as best we could, but the auction went through and a local investor/developer acquired the land. Since she had no official lease or contract to use the property, the new owner was under no obligation to let her keep her animals there even one day. We negotiated and he graciously agreed to two weeks. But, she is pressuring us to get her more time. She has nowhere to take the horses, or the trailers, and it seems that the animals may end up going to the humane society.
We realized, it was the same lady, but she doesn’t remember us, nor what she did to us.
I am sad for the animals, they are losing their pasture. We helped her all we could, but now she is using us by being insistent on a path where we cannot help her anymore. To push harder would be unprofessional and way out of the purview of our job.
I do chuckle at the irony.
Sometime about 1994 we had moved to the California coast to start a new life. We had two toddlers and one small infant, and ended up homeless and living on the beach. It was not so bad, the weather was okay, we had plenty of food and supplies, but the housing search there was awful, so it was just a long campout.
Well, we had a pup tent that ended up getting left at our house the year before by someone who hitched a ride to an medieval event with is. We asked everyone who is belonged to and no one claimed ownership. So, after a year we just used it and it became our primary residence on this beach, small but homey.
One day I was approached on the beach by a kid I knew from where we used to live that was in the area looking at colleges with his mother. It was a happenstance meeting and a bit out of the blue. So I invited him back to our camp for a cup of tea and to get out of the wind.
Lo and behold, as we walked past the dunes into our camp, his mother exclaimed “Oh there is our tent! I was wondering what happened to it.” I looked at the kid and reminded him that I had asked him several times if it was his and he denied it. He gave a sheepish grin and said “Oh, I guess I forgot” So, his mother said “I’m glad we ran into you, we need that tent for a camping trip next week.” While trying to contain my anger I pointed out that we are currently living in that tent and she would be taking our shelter. She replied “Yeah, but it is our tent.”
With abject humiliation, we emptied the tent and packed it up for her.
Fast forward 24 years later, we are approached by a lady begging for help to stop or delay an auction on a parcel of land owned by an elderly man who let her board her horses there. We helped her as best we could, but the auction went through and a local investor/developer acquired the land. Since she had no official lease or contract to use the property, the new owner was under no obligation to let her keep her animals there even one day. We negotiated and he graciously agreed to two weeks. But, she is pressuring us to get her more time. She has nowhere to take the horses, or the trailers, and it seems that the animals may end up going to the humane society.
We realized, it was the same lady, but she doesn’t remember us, nor what she did to us.
I am sad for the animals, they are losing their pasture. We helped her all we could, but now she is using us by being insistent on a path where we cannot help her anymore. To push harder would be unprofessional and way out of the purview of our job.
I do chuckle at the irony.
