An All-Too-Brief Respite

I am in love with Paso Robles and Cambria. My best friend Amy and I stole a few days this past weekend to head north to the land of wines and pines. I didn’t know what changes we would find – we are still in the midst of a pandemic after all. A side note – the last time we were there was the weekend of March 13 – just before the world shuddered with the novel coronavirus and LA (if not the entire state) went into lockdown.

We called everywhere we wanted to go and thankfully every place, including our hotel at the Cambria Pines Lodge, was open and ready for us. We also called all the wineries we wanted to visit. Reservations, which weren’t required prior to COVID-19, are now mandatory as are the wearing of face coverings and the amount of time allowed at each winery. But rest assured – these minor changes were incidental and we had a fabulous time.

Coming home, I was prepared for the dread that I typically find in my inbox – how LA is surging with the virus, no one is wearing masks and how everything should be either reopened or locked down. But one upbeat story brought a smile to my face.

In Glendale, Arizona, while a woman collected trash at a 76 gas station where she worked, she had about $1,000 stolen from her purse. She had cashed her paycheck and that money was earmarked for her rent. Crushed, she called the cops. She shared with them that she had been 14 months sober at that point, renting a room from her aunt and taking courses to become a full-time caregiver to her disabled cousin. She had little hope of having the money returned and considered the incident karma for the things she did in her past.

But the officers pooled their resources, called Angels on Patrol, a police organization that connects community members with needed resources, and even called Walmart, which ended up donating $1,000 to replace what was stolen. When stopping back at the station to give the gifts to the woman, one of the officers told her that karma wasn’t in having the money stolen, but getting it back was positive karma for the choices she’d made over the past year or so of helping others.

I’ll take that kind of story anytime.

  robin goldsworthy