My wife and I had a vision.
Yes! Let’s have a Christmas tree at the house. Who cares what the flippin’ governor and the gang say. Let’s not allow any Grinches or Burgermeister Meisterburgers stop Christmas from coming to our home. We will have our decorations, celebrations and a Christmas tree, complete with a red garland my wife envisioned.
OK – no problem! Right Universe?
One catch – how do we afford the tree at the moment, and how can we get it to our house, without having to enter a mask-infested reality? I guess we’ll have to simply do some manifesting to go along with our visioning.
This is not too tall of an order when you have faith, hope and – ahem – a ton of brothers within a men’s organization. I could reach out to my team – 10 men, most of them local, with a couple of them owning a truck.
Time was ticking a bit. Still felt like we had plenty of time. It was only Thursday, December 17 and I started to put the word out there for some assistance, even to some nearby pals. A friendly neighbor of mine was shopping at a nearby lot and texted to let us know she would be willing to pick up a tree while shopping with her family. She said the trees were 5 – 6 feet tall and going for $60. Though I was ready to get the help, gratefully, I was under a job deadline, and chose to decline with a thank you.
I reached out the next day to a couple of men on my team. One hero Willy Holt said he could meet me down at the Home Depot off Broadway at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, December 19. What? At 7:30 in the morning? A night-owl’s concern swiftly transformed into a “no problem” given the fact I couldn’t get choosy at this time and in these circumstances.
I had heard the day prior that the lot there was running out of supply, and only had 2-foot trees available. And you could only get one if you purchased a tree stand. Darn it. We were hoping for bigger, but oh well. Perhaps we’ll get two. And darn, the order for the red garland fell through, so that looked to be out of the picture for my wife.
Hmmm. The game ain’t over yet though. No problem. Right Universe?
That morning I went to the bank to grab $80 to cover any costs we may have, and then on to meet Willy by 7:30 a.m. By the time I called him from the road, Willy said he already grabbed two of the smaller trees, and they were in his truck. What?
He explained that the lot was shutting down, packing up, packing it in. All the supply was just being given away. As I pulled up, I saw workers tearing down the poles and fencing around what was basically an empty lot. I happened to notice a lone tree resting against some pallets, and I shouted to the worker, “Hey, whose tree is that?” She responded, “It’s yours; come and get it.”
So that was it. Instead of $60 for a 5-foot tree, I was able to secure two small trees and one 8-foot tree for free.
It’s humbling when the Universe shows up like that. It’s humbling when a great man like Willy is so helpful and willing. It’s so priceless to have an army of men who can support this life of mine.
All that was left was the garland to top off the tree experience. Again, it takes a team. One text to two members of my team, the ones most local, seeing if they had some extra garland hanging around. A text back about 30 minutes later from Matt Garcia: “There is some garland in a tub on my porch.”
I was surprised but maybe shouldn’t have been too surprised when I opened the tub and found the color of the garland within.
Thank you to the men. I acknowledge you all.
And happy holidays everyone.
