The Universe Knows If You Just Need Your Hair Brushed

A spiritual teacher and metaphysical writer was waiting to board a plane. She had a spiritual book in her lap and was very intent upon what she was reading, until she felt summoned by Spirit to look up. When she did, she saw such a strange sight she had to try to keep from staring.

Humped over in a wheelchair she saw an elderly man. He was skin and bones, dressed in clothes that obviously fit when he was at least twenty pounds heavier. His knees protruded from his trousers, and his shoulders looked like the coat hanger was still in his shirt. His hands looked like tangled masses of veins and bones.

The strangest part of him was his hair and nails. Stringy, gray hair hung well over his shoulders and down part of his back.  His fingernails were long and clean, but strangely out of place on an old man.

Beth looked down at her book as fast as she could, discomfort burning in her face, and tried to imagine what his story might be. She found herself wondering if she had just had a Howard Hughes sighting, but then she remembered that he is dead.

So, who was this man in the airport…an impersonator maybe? Was a camera on them somewhere, she wondered. There she sat; trying to concentrate on her book, to keep from being concerned about a thin slice of humanity served on a wheelchair only a few seats from her. All the while, her heart was growing more and more overwhelmed with a feeling of concern for him. Curiosity is a heap more comfortable than true concern, but suddenly Beth was awash with aching emotion for this bizarre looking man.

She had worked with Spirit long enough to see the handwriting on the wall. Beth had learned that when she began to feel what the universe feels, something contrary to her natural feelings, something dramatic is bound to happen…and it may be embarrassing. She immediately began to resist and started arguing with Spirit in her mind. “Oh, no, Spirit, please no,” she thought, but asked, “What are you calling me to do?”

Wherever there is a human in need, there is an opportunity for kindness and to make a difference ~ Kevin Heath

The words were so clear, her heart leapt into her throat, and her thoughts spun like a top. Spirit said simply, “I want you to brush his hair”. Beth said to Spirit, “I don’t have a hair brush. It’s in my suitcase on the plane. How am I supposed to brush his hair without a hair brush?”

She stumbled over to the wheelchair thinking she could use one herself. She knelt down in front of the man and asked as demurely as possible, “Sir, may I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?”

He looked back at her and said, “What did you say?” She repeated, “May I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?” To which he responded in volume ten, “Little lady, if you expect me to hear you, you’re going to have to talk louder than that.”  At this point, Beth took a deep breath and blurted out loudly: ‘Sir, may I have the pleasure of brushing your hair!”

At this point every eye in the place darted right at her. She was the only thing in the room looking more peculiar than old Mr. Long Locks. Face crimson and forehead breaking out in a sweat, Beth watched him look at her with absolute shock on his face, and say “If you really want to.”

Are you kidding? Of course, she didn’t want to, but Spirit didn’t seem interested in her personal preference right about then and pressed on her heart until she could utter the words, “Yes, sir, I would be pleased to, but I have one little problem. I don’t have a hair  brush.” He responded, “I have one in my bag.”

Beth went around to the back of that wheelchair and got on her hands and knees and unzipped the stranger’s old carry-on, hardly believing what she was doing. She stood up and started brushing the old man’s hair. It was perfectly clean, but it was tangled and matted, so she started brushing at the very bottom of the strands remembering to take her time not to pull.

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other ~ Mother Teresa

She says that a miraculous thing happened to her when she started to brush his hair. Everyone else in the room disappeared. There was no one alive for those moments except the old man and herself. She brushed and brushed and brushed until every tangle was out of his hair.

Beth reports that she has never felt that kind of love for another soul in her entire life. She believes with all her heart that for those few minutes she felt a total release of human negativity. Finally, the elderly man’s hair was as soft and smooth as an infant’s.

She slipped the brush back in the bag and went around the chair to face him. Beth got down on her knees and said, “Sir, do you know Spirit?” He said “Yes, I’ve known the Divine since I married my bride. She wouldn’t marry me until I understood the Sacred Energy of the Universe”.

Then he said, “You see, the problem is, I haven’t seen my bride in months. I’ve had open heart surgery and she’s been too ill to come and see me. I was sitting here thinking to myself, what a mess I must be for my bride.”

Only Spirit knows how often we’re allowed to be a part of a Divine moment when we’re completely unaware of the significance. This, on the other hand, was one of those rare encounters when Beth knew the Universe had intervened and allowed her a glimpse.

Their time came to board, and they were not on the same plane.  Beth felt deeply ashamed of how she’d felt earlier and would have been proud to have accompanied him on that aircraft.

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness ~ Charlie Chaplin

She still had a few minutes, and as she gathered her things to board, the flight attendant returned from the corridor, tears streaming down her cheeks. She said, “That old man’s sitting on the plane, sobbing. Why did you do that? What made you do that?” Beth said, “Spirit can be the bossiest thing!”

She learned a lot that day. Spirit knows if you’re exhausted, hungry, serving in the wrong place, or if it is time to move on, but you feel too responsible to budge. The Universe knows if you’re hurting, feeling rejected or if you’re sick or drowning under a wave of temptation, or if you just need your hair brushed.

The Divine sees you as an individual. Tell Spirit what you need.

Beth got on her own flight, sobs choking her throat, wondering how many opportunities just like that one she had missed along the way…all because she didn’t want people to think she was strange. She realized Spirit didn’t send her to that old man. The Universe sent that dear elderly gentleman to her.