The Worldwide Search For One Twenty-dollar Bill
Could karma have placed it in YOUR wallet?
Whether you call it karma, the universe, or divine intervention, these things play an important role in our lives every single day.
Sometimes we don’t stop and take note of karmic nuances because they’re so tiny that they’re unnoticeable. Other times, it’s as if Miss Universe herself base-jumped her way into your life and slapped a hot pink Post-it note onto your forehead.
For years I’ve tried to be mindful and take note of when these cosmic episodes come into play because I’m fascinated by the way they work. Dare I say they ALWAYS work in my favor when travel is involved?
One of my favorite movies of all time is Crash (2004). The movie trailer quotes this:
“When we’re moving at the speed of life we’re bound to collide with each other.”
Indeed we collide in the most mysterious and gratifying ways. I had one such occurrence early in 2018 that I hadn’t noticed until a coworker pointed it out. The chain of events that followed was nothing short of fascinating.
Back then, I moonlighted as a bartender at an airport hotel. One night, a hotel guest approached me as though she knew me.
She seemed in a hurry but took the time to whip out a twenty-dollar bill, hand it to me, and thank me profusely for what I’d done for her earlier. I had no idea what she was referring to.
She said, “My purse. You found my purse and made sure I got it back.”
Confused, I told her it wasn’t me who had found her purse. It must have been one of my coworkers. So, the woman asked me if I could please make sure the right person got this twenty. She finished with an exuberant thank you, then rushed out to catch the airport shuttle bus.
There I stood with twenty bucks in my pocket that no one knew I’d received.
I could have easily kept it and called it a day. But because I believe in karma - both good and bad - I knew if I’d kept it, surely bad karma would rear its ugly head next time I’m riding a rollercoaster or scuba diving near sharks.
Instead, I held onto the money until my coworkers showed up and I gave it to the one who knew about the lady with the purse.
Later that same evening, a hotel guest from Texas had me fully engaged in a conversation about bucket lists. Visiting New Orleans was at the top of mine.
I told him I had plans to visit New Orleans before 2018 was through, so he took the liberty of filling me in on everything he knew about the city. Places to see, insider tips, things I shouldn’t miss, etc.
On his must-do list was Cafe Du Monde. I told him I’d never heard of it.
The burly Texan hastily stood up, pulled a twenty out of his pocket, wrote “Cafe Du Monde” on the edge of the bill, and handed it to me. He assured me that twenty dollars was more than enough to take a taxi from any New Orleans hotel to the cafe and purchase myself a coffee and world-famous beignet.
Noted.
After the gentleman left the bar I told my coworker about the twenty he gave me and all the things he told me to do in New Orleans. Immediately, she said, “You see! That twenty is your karma for giving me the first twenty you received today!”
Indeed, she was right. I hadn’t even thought about the first twenty. It had happened hours earlier. Good old karma.
The Texan twenty-dollar bill with “Cafe Du Monde” written on the edge hung on my refrigerator for more than a year before my eventual trip to New Orleans in 2019.
In the lead-up to my departure, I had mentioned my travel plans to several more American hotel guests and nearly all of them offered one piece of advice or another.
One lady even left this napkin behind on my bar. It lived with the twenty on my fridge for several months.
I’ll never see that man from Texas again but I owed it to him and his money to fully commit and book the trip. I’ve always wished there was a way to let him know that he helped influence a major decision in my life.
I thought I’d NEVER be brave enough to let the twenty go because it was too cool a reminder of karma's role in our everyday lives. But in April 2019, that bill finally came face to face with its intended purpose - paying for my visit to Cafe Du Monde.
I won’t lie, I’d held onto it for so long that I briefly considered paying with my own money and keeping it for memory’s sake. But this was its destiny to finish the story.
The check for my beignets and coffee came in under $10.00. I handed my server the twenty with “Cafe Du Monde” written on the edge and told her to keep the change.
Would you laugh if I admitted that I caught a lump in my throat knowing my keepsake had just made its way back into regular circulation after being mine for a whole year?
It wasn’t unique anymore.
The full-circle story had come to an end.
I would secretly love for this story to go viral to see if I could find out where that twenty-dollar bill has travelled. It’s so easily recognizable with the writing on the edge.
In my heart, letting it go felt like a message in a bottle. Throwing dreams out into the world and seeing where they end up.
Your turn…
Have you ever experienced an unforgettable Karma occurrence?
Also, did you just open your wallet to see if this twenty was in there?
Looking for more unforgettable stories from New Orleans?
So much love for this!
Here's one of my karma stories (more like weird signs from the Universe), I was a speaker at a women's retreat in the mountains. I was slotted to speak after dinner (which I will never do again because everyone was falling asleep). It shook my confidence and I was unsure if I wanted to keep going down this path of teaching and speaking. I asked for a very clear sign of what to do and requested it be that day.
That night my friend and I were asleep in the main cabin in a second story room. There was a dormer window and I woke up just before midnight to a small cat meowing behind the screen in our window. I thought nothing of it but I did notice the time.
The next day my friend and I were walking far from the lodge, we went down a trail by the river and ended up in a meadow where we were sitting on a log. Who shows up but that kitty, all alone, just as we were talking about my next, right steps! Given that it showed up the day I asked for a sign in a very unexpected place and again in a very unexpected place I took this as a sign of what to do.
One of those things that makes you go hmmm. May that twenty find it's way back to you as one more reminder there is much more going on than we can imagine.
These types of stories are fascinating to me! I honestly don't know whether I believe in mysterious forces at play, or just a heightened awareness that allows our minds to draw connections. But a world of mysterious forces is much more fun to live in, so I'll choose that!