A Small Amazement

Tuesday, May 05, 2009, continued

This morning, we went to find the man whose shop is around the corner, to see if we could arrange for him to make us a new bathroom window. The existing one is of louvered glass; it lets in the cold in the winter and the heat in the summer. And it sits back from the wall, with no trim to fill in the space, so it looks ugly and unfinished. Plus, corners are chipped off the slats of glass.

The shop was easy to find, but the door was locked. There was no sign saying anything like, “Gone Fishing” or “On Vacation” or anything like that. We stood there pondering for two or three minutes, when a man of around 40 appeared on a bicycle.

“Are you looking for Kyrios Nikos?” he asked.

Yes, we said, we were.

“He doesn’t work there anymore. He’s retired. But I’ll get him on the phone for you.” He punched a number on his cell phone and Demetrios got to speak with the man.

It turns out the man on the bicycle used to work with Mr. Nick and now runs a shop of his own. “What did you want?” he asked us.

So we told him, and he came home with us, parking his bike in the lobby of our building. He measured the window, told us he would make us a double-glazed one, without louvers, that would slant either partway open, for ventilation, or all the way open on the inside, for cleaning, and would be framed in white aluminum. Then he quoted us a price fifty Euros lower than anybody else had, and departed, saying he would bring us the window tomorrow or the next day and we could pay him then.

We just sort of looked at each other as if dazed. How easy was that? We were looking for the wrong man and didn’t find him, but the right man appeared. Just at the right moment; three minutes before or after, and we wouldn’t have been there. When does such a thing ever happen?

Then we went to the Internet Café (which walk, at this season, entails getting your hair decorated by falling acacia blossoms) to see if the air conditioner we’ve been looking at would be any cheaper online than from the man in our neighborhood. Yes, it was, 90 Euros cheaper, which is well over a hundred dollars. The company’s telephone number was provided, so we went home through more acacia blossoms and Demetrios ordered the air conditioner over the phone. There will be no shipping, because we will pick it up from the store. More precisely, Christos will; the store is along the road to Katerini, where Christos lives part of the time. So now we are going to have a second air conditioning unit as well, which, as we found out on a previous trip, this house badly needs in the hot weather. The one we have is inadequate for the job, cooling only half the place.

We tried to find George the carpenter, too, but failed. His shop was closed, with no sign affixed. He is supposed to make us new kitchen drawers this week, as soon as we give him the go-ahead. We hope to find him tomorrow.

Also among the missing are Anesti (Anastasios) and Vasiliki. (So I didn’t get a chance today to say, “Christos Anesti, Anesti!” (“Christ is risen, Anesti!” – the greeting we all use from Pascha until Pentecost.) But their fruit stand does have a sign: “Our establishment will be closed from the 5th to the 17th of May for health reasons.” I suppose that means one of them is having surgery. You may like to keep them in your prayers.

Thomai is also gone; we knocked on her door because usually we hear her booming voice periodically through the day, and we hadn’t heard it for a day or two.

I’ve been thinking about Thomai, and what’s different about her, as compared with most of us. And the difference, that makes her such a treasure, is that everything she experiences goes straight to her heart. She experiences everything directly in her heart, whereas the rest of us don’t. Most of us have been hurt, so we construct filters (“inhibitions,” Demetrios calls them) between the world and our heart. We do not make our heart immediately available, which is to say, vulnerable, to each and every experience.

Thomai also responds directly from the heart. All of us act from our hearts, that is, from the core of our being, but most of us put our responses through those filters, and Thomai doesn’t. Just however her heart responds, that’s what she spontaneously says or does. That’s why you immediately sense you are in the presence of someone thoroughly real.

We are hoping all is well with her and Zisis, and maybe they’ve just gone to their village.

UPDATES: Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Sakis came today and installed a beautiful new bathroom window for us. The whole bathroom looks so much better. Overall, we are gradually eliminating the “we're just camping out” feeling our house used to have and making it feel like a real residence. It's less and less make-do.

Thomai also appeared; she and Zisis had been to their village. She says she’ll tell us from now on when they plan to be away.