The Kindness of Strangers...the God in All of Us

The photo at left is of an authentic Lewiston, Maine Bates Mill bedspread, made, to the best of our knowledge, in the 1990s shortly before Bates went out of business.  If you Google "Bates Mill, Maine," you will find that this company dated back to the 19th century, employed hundreds of people, and produced high quality heirloom textiles that are collected and prized all over the world.  When Bates closed its doors, some of its former employees took over the same machines and patterns and now make beautiful linens under the name "Maine Heritage Weavers," but they are not original Bates linens as they can no longer carry the Bates name.  I have wanted an authentic Bates bedspread for a very long time.  The bedspread at left is the Abigail Adams pattern in pewter, and it's mine.  It arrived on Christmas morning as a gift from my husband, Bill.  Or was it a gift from him?  It was, and it wasn't.  But it certainly was a gift with a story - in a way, a gift from a universe that seems to come through for us in the most astonishing ways.

Bill has known for a long time that I've been looking for a Bates spread, and he intended to get me a Maine Heritage Weavers bedspread as a gift.  He had given up on finding an authentic Bates bedspread and went to a store in the Auburn Mall that carried Maine Heritage.  As he was speaking to the woman there, he told her that he worked with someone who had worked at Bates Mill named Pauline.  The woman said that she had worked with a woman by the same name at a shoe factory, but the age of the woman the store clerk knew seemed too great for her to be the same woman who worked with Bill.  Because he did not find the Maine Heritage pattern he was looking for in the store that day, he did not purchase a bedspread there.  But he did go back to work and tell Pauline about the woman at Maine Heritage Weavers and how she had known a shoe factory employee with her same name.  Pauline proceeded to tell Bill that although she was not the same woman, she too had worked at a shoe factory.  Bill explained to her how much I loved Bates bedspreads and how badly I wanted one, at which point Pauline said that she had several in storage at home and that it would be her pleasure to give one to him for me.  Needless to say, Bill was stunned by the synchronities that were in operation here - not only was he going to find the Bates bedspread that I so dearly wanted, but it was going to come to him for FREE???  He protested, and offered to pay Pauline for the bedspread, but she would not hear of  it.  At first Pauline seemed concerned that she would not have a bedspread in the right size, as most people, she explained, want the Queen or King sized spreads.  She asked what size I was looking for and Bill said that our bed was Full sized.  She became very excited because she had a bedspread in that size and promised to bring it in for him.

Pauline went home and she and her sister took the bedspread out of storage.  They carefully washed and folded it and Pauline presented it to my husband at work.  He again offered to pay for it.  While he did not know exactly what the bedspread was worth, I know that a brand new Maine Heritage bedspread in the same size and pattern retails for around $200.  What its original Bates counterpart would go for on eBay or a similar site I do not know.  But I do know that Pauline again refused to accept payment for this beautiful item that I will treasure and hopefully pass down to future generations as an authentic piece of Maine craftsmanship and history.  We are still thinking of something we can gift to Pauline in return, as her generosity and kindness can not fairly go unanswered.

This is not just a story about a bedspread.  This is a story about intention.  It's a story about a manifested outcome.  And it's a story about human kindness.  We find in our lives, over and over again, that if we but hold an idea in our minds and go in search of fulfilling it, the way to that fulfillment will be shown to us.  It can be something as relatively small as a Bates bedspread coming out of the blue, or as relatively large as the unfolding of our move to Maine once we fixed it in our minds to come here.  It would be so easy to just say that we "made it happen."  But that's not how it works.  We can't take full credit for any of the blessings in our lives.  Just as Pauline's incredible kindness and generosity led to my lying here right now under a warm and beautiful Bates linen, so the benevolence of many people along our path and of a friendly universe made our move to Maine and our subsequent lives here "work."  It does, however, start with intention.  And following intention, with an openness and receptiveness to and expectation of good things to come.

Bill told me on Christmas day that he could hardly restrain himself from immediately telling me the story of how the bedspread went from an intention in his mind to a bundle in his arms within a very short time.  At the same time I had purchased for him as a gift Dr. Wayne Dyer's book, "The Power of Intention," which, of course, is about this very phenomenon and how we can attract more of this into our lives.  The most important things we can manifest through intention are not bedspreads, houses (although I have worked with real estate clients who have clearly manifested their dream houses in the most amazing series of events), cars (my Jeep came to me in a way as serendipitous as the bedspread), or any other material thing.  The most important things we can manifest through intention are healthy, happy, and loving relationships with other human beings.  In the case of my Bates bedspread, every time I look at it, wash it, put it on the bed, or just snuggle up under it, I will think not only of how beautiful and well crafted it is, not only of my husband's love for me in trying to acquire it, not only of the Maine textile heritage it represents, but of a woman I don't personally know who gave it out of affection, selflessness, and kindness to my husband, to make a stranger very happy on Christmas morning.  If that is not an example of the God within all of us, I don't know what would be.