Embarrassing

Against my every natural inclination, I was determined to reconcile with this Christian brother with whom I hadn’t been on speaking terms for a while. I was really struggling whether to attend a gathering where I knew he would be present, but the better part of me won out and I went, knowing it would be hard to see the guy.

I tried all day to fortify my heart with much prayer and to clean up whatever bitterness I had ever had toward him. When I got to the banquet, I was, in fact, quite anxious to meet him and to express to him my good will toward him.

He was late for the meeting and I was eating by the time he came. I leapt from my table when I saw him and walked across the hall to say hi to him. “It’s so nice to see you,” I said to him with affection. “Good to see you too,” he replied, rather emotionlessly. I was trying to say something else to him but, strangely, he kept looking at his hand, which was still in my grip. “Am I squeezing too hard?” I asked. He didn’t say anything. Then I saw there was half a grain of rice on top of his hand that I must have accidentally deposited there. “O, I am so sorry. Let me wipe it off,” I said, trying to wipe it off with the napkin that I had in my left hand, but he motioned for me not to do it and walked away without saying anything.

Embarrassing, wasn’t it. I laid awake last night for a long time thinking about what had happened. I guess many a time in our lives doing the right thing may not generate the desired result. The guy may be thinking that I did that on purpose and our relationship may have worsened after this unfortunate event.