Several years ago in New York City I hopped in a cab getting a break from the pouring rain. The taxi that had just passed me by hit a pot hole puddle drenching me. I thought that only happened in the movies, not in real life. “Where to Ma’am?” the turbaned driver asked in a thick accent as I shut the door.

“Fifty-seventh and 5th please,” I answered shaking my head like a wet dog. “When do you think the rain will let up. When the weather is like this, the entire city gets a little testy.”

“It’s supposed to clear off tonight. Maybe things will calm down,” he answered with a smile.

“I hope so. Where are you from and how long have you been here?” I asked.

He went on to explain he’d come from India ten years earlier leaving his family and the crowded lifestyle to find a better life in America. “I discovered America is just about as crowded as India,” he sighed.

“You think so,” I asked. "What other parts of the country have you visited?”

"Brooklyn," he answered, as if he’d traveled extensively.

“Oh, please don’t judge the whole country by where you’ve been. There are huge wide open spaces outside the city. It’s like another world and it’s beautiful. Promise me someday you’ll take a trip to see what I’m talking about,” I said.

He looked at me as if I was telling him a fairy tale, but promised he would go see for himself some day.

Yesterday driving through New Mexico at sunset, I thought of the taxi driver who assumed all of America was jammed with people. I hope he’s had the opportunity to take that trip.

“He has made everything beautiful in it’s time.” ~Ecclesiastes 3:11