Call me a rationalist. I won’t mind. I make my living as a journalist, spending my days dissecting the barrage of news, trying to make sense out of often-bafflingly complex, cruel, or absurd events and explain them to others. But I also know when I’ve had an extraordinary experience that defies rationale.

Last Sunday, I’d just finished shopping at my favourite local market, unloaded my groceries into my car trunk, and reversed course to return the cart to the corral in front of the store. As I pivoted and began to wheel the wagon back, I saw that the woman parked next to me was doing precisely the same thing. Through a sea of scattered carts, strewn around the parking lot by careless, harried shoppers who can’t be bothered to make the return trip, we moved in perfect tandem. It wasn’t the first time I’d noticed her; she’d caught my eye as I approached my car with packages: a beautiful African-American woman with wonderfully braided hair. There was something about her, I’d thought; it wasn’t just that she looked beautiful — she radiated beauty.

Walking alongside one another with our carts, we simultaneously turned face-to-face and she said, “I’ve found another person who’s doing the right thing.” I smiled, and we began to talk about what compelled us to set things in order, at least, to the degree that anyone can in the chaotic world we inhabit. We were laughing, yet clearly connected on so many levels that it nearly bowled me over. — Beliefnet.com