In one precise moment.

A rare but meaningful encounter with one of God’s smallest creatures last night has left me a little reflective that maybe things aren’t as random as they can appear. The events leading up to this, go something like this:

Sunday at 10: Jody runs into a friend at the gym who builds decks. He takes the opportunity to ask if he would give us a quote for a deck that was supposed to have been replaced earlier this summer.

Deck guy says “sure; I’ll stop by today around 4pm."

4pm: No deck guy.
4:30pm: No deck guy. Grrr…we were ready to go for something to eat. We’ll give him until 5:30pm.
5pm: Still no deck guy

5:14pm:
Phone rings. It’s deck guy who said that he had already stopped by earlier in the afternoon when we were out and looked things over. Gave Jody quote.

5:25pm:
We leave for supper for a big feed of fish and chips at Warf Wraps. Upon arrival, we notice the restaurant is packed and we are seated in the back. The two waitresses are struggling to keep up so we decide to settle in knowing we have a bit of a wait. About 2 minutes later, the waitress informs us that a large group has just arrived and asked if we would mind moving to a smaller table. Once reseated, she lets us know that we will be served first for the inconvenience. What should have been a long wait, ended up being a rather quick (and somewhat guilty) serving. We ignore the envious sneers and scarf down every morsel in a rather disturbing manner.

6:30pm-ish: We leave restaurant. “Wanna take a quick drive around the Bay?” I ask.

About 15 minutes later we’re about to pass Oceanlea Drive – the shortcut home.

“Maybe we need some treats from the Irving?” I suggest which would require us to pass by Oceanlea and continue down Cow Bay Road.
“Really?”
“Yes. After that meal what damage can they do?”
“Alright.”

And then at the very last moment, I have a change of heart, "no, nevermind.”

“Are you sure?”
“My tummy’s sure.”

We take a quick left onto Oceanlea. Up in the distance we see a young girl and her mom on their bikes.

As they approach the cross walk, they hesitate to ensure we see them. We come to a stop to let them pass in front of us.

The mom waves a thank you. We start to continue on. Jody glances over to her and notices the little girl has stopped and is pointing.

Jody checks the rearview mirror. “Oh no!” he says with concern.

“What?” I can’t see.

He starts to back up. “I think that bird is injured.”

Over my shoulder I see a little mourning dove dragging its wing along the side of the curb.

We all gather on the sidewalk to determine what needs to happen. Remembering there is an animal emergency clinic in Burnside, we decide to try to catch it.

After 10 minutes of fluttery, failed attempts, Jody finally captured the frail bird in his hat.

So off we go hoping the clinic is open. It was and much to our relief, they were happy to take him in and provide the necessary attention. I understand that Mother Nature has her way of taking care of these things, but it is nice to lend her a hand every now and then.

Driving home, I couldn’t help but replay the events of the day in my mind. I was struck by the obvious fact that if one thing had gone differently, if Jody hadn’t run into the deck guy, if he had called when he said he would, if we hadn’t gotten served early, if we had continued on to the Irving, we wouldn’t have been where we needed to be to help the little mourning dove. We wouldn’t have been where we needed to be in that one precise moment.

Perhaps just a gentle reminder that not all things are left to chance.