One evening in June, I was driving to have dinner with a friend, and ran out of gas. I called AAA and within about 45 minutes a delightful young man, so sweet and full of service, brought me one gallon of gas. He asked where I was going and I said up into Topanga Canyon (an uphill drive). He told me to make sure I got gas before going up the hill because the car wouldn\u2019t register that small amount of gas on an uphill slope, and I could get stuck again.<\/p>\n
After dinner, there were no gas stations open, but I made it home, forgetting that I had very little gas left. The next morning i had an appointment for which I was already a bit late. As I drove I realized that my car was limping along, and quickly I realized I was running out of gas again. I managed to pull into a service station just in time for my car to stop running. I pulled out my wallet and got gas. I put the credit card in my pocket, put the wallet on top of car, and drove away. I went to my appointment, and when it came time to pay I realized I didn\u2019t have my wallet with me. I thought it must be in the car, but when I went out to the car there was no wallet there.<\/p>\n
At that very moment my phone rang and before I answered it I \u2018saw\u2019 the whole scene: I just knew that it was Olga, John\u2019s and my golden assistant, calling me; I \u201csaw\u201d where I had put the wallet, and I had the sense that Olga now had my wallet. My brain processed the whole story in a second as the phone was ringing. When I answered the phone, sure enough, the voice said, \u201cThis is Olga and I have your wallet.\u201d I said, \u201cOh my God how did this happen?\u201d Olga told me the story. She got a phone call from AAA, and they said that there is someone who has Leigh Taylor-Young\u2019s wallet, and this someone would be calling her about returning the wallet.<\/p>\n
A minute later a woman called Olga and said she was a teacher at Palisades High School. A student saw cash and credit cards flying all over Temescal Canyon, and ran into the teacher\u2019s office to tell her. The student and the teacher went out into the road and found the wallet, opened it, and there were only three cards left inside, which were my SAG card and AFTRA academy card (both actors\u2019 unions) and my AAA card. The teacher said, \u201cOh my God this is Leigh Taylor-Young. I know her.\u201d It turns out that the teacher used to be a casting director and thought she remembered that I had come to read for her once. (She became dissatisfied with being a casting director ten years ago and went into teaching.)<\/p>\n
She knew enough not to call actors\u2019 unions to find me because as a casting director she that knew the unions often didn\u2019t call back quickly. The only other card was AAA, and when she called AAA they said, \u201cOh, we know her because we just got her gas last night.\u201d They agreed to call my office number to connect the teacher with Olga.<\/p>\n
After recovering the wallet from the middle of the road (with lots of passing traffic), the student said she had an intuition to look in the trash bin that was in front of the school. And in there, in a pile, neatly stacked sat all my credit cards. It turned out that I got everything back except for one credit card and a health insurance card. I cancelled the credit card.
\nI called the teacher to thank her with all my heart. She said that finding the wallet was an amazing experience because of the closeness she felt with me. She drove all the way to our office in Santa Monica where Olga works (along with the student) so she could deliver the wallet . She wanted to experience for herself how I was going to feel when I got everything back.<\/p>\n
The teacher told me that while she was driving with the student, she shared what a wonderful thing it is to do good deeds for people. When she met Olga she asked, \u201cWho is Leigh married to now?\u201d (as you might ask only in Hollywood) and, \u201cWhat is she doing now?\u201d Olga told her that I\u2019m married to John Morton and working with MSIA. The teacher said, \u201cOh I\u2019ve heard of John Morton and MSIA. I\u2019ve been interested in spirituality for many years.\u201d Olga told her that I would be calling her later, and I did.<\/p>\n
We had a joy-filled reunion on the phone. It was like a soul-to-soul connection, and we were both giddy with joy. It only appeared to be about the wallet. I asked if she would like to come to an MSIA seminar sometime. The whole experience was filling us both with Light. She shared how proud she was of her students and I said I wanted to meet her students too. I ordered a huge gift basket from Urth Caff\u00e9 for her and the students. I took it to the high school the next morning, and when we met we all couldn\u2019t stop hugging and sharing the joy. It was absolute heaven. I\u2019m going to invite her to John\u2019s next seminar.<\/p>\n
It was supremely clear that this was God-given journey, put there for us all to enjoy. It was truly a beautiful ride.<\/p>\n