I walked into the wrong house.

 It was an accident, but thank God I didn't get shot.

While visiting my daughter in Baltimore, I walked into the neighbor's house.

I was tired. I had just driven five hours from Sweet Briar, Virginia to Baltimore, Maryland. By the time I arrived, dusk was falling. 

And by the time we finished dinner, night had descended. I went out to my car to retrieve my overnight bag, and I walked back to the house and up the stairs. My daughter and her family live in a typical Baltimore row house. Everyone has same brick walkway, a set of stairs and a porch. However, it did register on me that there was a cat toy on the porch—something I hadn’t noticed when I first arrived—and I thought oh that's nice--they're getting ready to adopt a cat. I didn't think anything more about it. Instead, I just opened the door.

A dark-haired woman sitting on the couch looked up at me and said "oh!"

I said, "oh!"

And then, (idiotically) I said, "you're not my daughter!" Although she did have long dark hair, just like my daughter. I quickly added, "I'm in the wrong house!" and "I'm sorry!" And then her husband stood up from behind the fortress of the dining room table and looked at me with an expression that read--I am a big bear and I am the protector of this family and you are an intruder! 

I apologized again and then I quickly made an exit and returned to my daughter's house and told them what had just happened. My son-in-law called his neighbors and apologized for me. We are all so sorry!

But, imagine, if the protective-big-bear-of-a-man happened to own a gun? Would I be here to tell you this story? I don't know. I might be in the ICU right now...or worse.

We are doing our best to survive. We are all human and fallible. In addition to this, as creative and imaginative people, we embrace the unexpected. This is because we have a gift for spinning stories out of mistakes and mix-ups. It’s part of our artistic palette and it’s why we need to maintain a certain trust in the universe, in ourselves, and in our neighbors.

Creative Friends—your assignment for this week to hold fast to this trust and also to be brave and brave and braver. 

And for heaven's sake, don't pick up a gun when you see the stranger at the door.

Love,

Jamie