I met Curly, but not Joe or Moe

Hello world.

Yesterday I re-discovered Buddhism. On Netflix I can stream movies instantly to my TV or computer. So I was watching The Four Noble Truths. The 14th Dalia Lama, in 1996, gave his first teachings to the West on the four noble truths in London. They recorded it and I was watching it. It is long. About 4 parts of an hour each.

I discovered that most everything I believed was metaphysical mumbo jumbo was actually Buddhism. Of course my training over the last 15 years goes into more advanced knowledge than the four noble truths and the eightfold path - but I imagine those advanced teachings are also part of more advanced Buddhism teachings.

While I do not match the makings of a Buddhist - they have some strict rules that I am not ready to adhere to - I certainly consider my belief system to be Buddhist. I understand there are a couple different followings of Buddhism and they vary on key belief points. With my quick internet search of the description of the 3 or 4 major sects of Buddhism, I find the beliefs that I accord to most is the Mahayana Buddhism.

So in accordance with my 10% Tithing Experience and my strong desire to help others in need, I decided I would celebrate my new Buddhist path. The basics of Buddhism is there are FOUR Noble Truths and an Eightfold path to travel to reach complete understanding and experience of those 4 Noble truths.

Thus - I decided I would lessen the suffering of FOUR people during my lunch hour with $8 dollar Starbucks gift cards.

The lady at the Starbucks counters was wondering how I came to the number 8 which she found odd. I told her simply eight is a great number.

I had passed a man, assuming to be homeless, who was singing Christmas Carols and holding out a can for donations. The man did not beg, he just sung the songs - terribly I might add. He was the first person of the four I gave a gift card too.

I had to listen to my inner self to know which street to walk down. I did not want to walk my normal path. This was divine work and I told God I would do the walking but he would have to bring the 4 people to me.

The second man was a black man. I wasn't even sure he was homeless. But I knew he was getting a gift card and I pulled one out. As I passed him he asked if I had any spare change. I gave him the gift card and shuck his hand.

I always tell people "God is Watching". I just want people to know that they are not alone.

The third person was the man in the title - Curly. I talked with Curly for a long time, longer than planned. I think I must have been standing talking to Curly for twenty minutes. Curly needed someone to talk to. I gave Curly a gift card. But Curly went on about great a day he was having and he was blessed because he was listening to his music on his wireless headphones. His only complaint was those double AA batteries are expensive!

I asked Curly how much the batteries are and he said about $2.99. He then asked me if I had $3 for AA batteries. I said absolutely and gave him the only $3 I had in my wallet.

I have not met a homeless person yet who did not believe in God. It will happen eventually, but so far my "God Is Watching" has been taken with good acceptance.

I still have one $8 Starbucks gift card to hand out. I tried walking around searching for whoever God was going to present to me. I was even late on my lunch ten minutes. Nothing.

Patience is an important asset when doing Gods work - so I imagine God is working on it and I will know when to give the last card when God tells me.