Today I stopped in at the hardware store, again expecting to send a return package UPS. When I arrived at 4:55, running a bit late, the clerk usually left at 5:00 pm, but as I walked to her counter she recognized me and asked how she could help. I sent her the email I received to print out the label to mail my package, but this time it was sent via FedEx. Whoops! This particular store only mailed out UPS. All of a sudden, I had a whole scenario of what I would have to go through ….I had driven all the way to another town to get this accomplished all for naught. (I would have to take the package to Dollar General. In doing so, however, I would not be able to mail it today, because they had no way to print out the label. I would have to forgo mailing the box, go back home, only to make the same trip tomorrow. I would have to stop by the library, hoping they could print out the label. I said nothing but waited.). She smiled at me, hit print and out popped the label and pulling off several strips of tape had the label taped onto the box in a moment. I said, “You don’t do FedEx?” She smiled again, “No, just take it to Dollar General and drop it off and they will mail it for you.” I was shocked! What amazing customer service! I was certainly blessed today bumping into a kind and caring individual. I thanked her humbly and told her how grateful I was for her going the extra mile. We spoke of the change in the attitude during covid and how it has not changed much. Most are angry and fearful from dealing with the system. Fear does not produce love, but perfect love casts our fear. Here’s hoping we can learn to trust one another again. Prayer, love and kindness can change things.
I thought today going home how many times I’ve been in a hurry and have never stopped to smell the roses. Since I’ve been ill, I’ve stopped more times than I can count to listen, to consider, to look at the daisies, even count the petals. I seemed always too busy and preoccupied to do this before. Surprised by a lone rose that had blossomed on my ill-cared-for rose bushes ….beautiful and sitting there calling to me to smell the fragrance. Smell I did. I gathered daisies, wild flowers and other greens and put them all in a vase….sat them on my table and was delighted that my Father had brought a beautiful bouquet for my birthday. I looked at it for a couple of hours and said, “That’s just too pretty not to share.” I thought of my friend Vicky who was having a hard time with losing her husband this past year. I picked up the vase and walked down to her house. Her screen door, as usual was open and she saw the flower and opened the door, invited me in and I presented her with “my” bouquet of flowers. She loved flowers, her roses all along the front of her house were beautiful, but unlike my tea roses, didn’t smell. I left that day with a huge grin on my face and a wider one in my heart. We sure need one another.
Like the desert needs the rain we need kindness
Like the ocean needs the streams, we need compassion
Like the morning needs the sun, we need the warmth of being listened to
How deeply we need to love and be loved, to understand and be understood.
Prayer: “Lord help me to seek to understand, to wait rather than speak, to listen rather than let my mind wander.”