Saturday, September 02, 2006
Little Not So Random Acts
Some times it’s the very small things that touch me deeply. To anyone else they may appear as nothing; not even worth mentioning or writing about but I take notice of these very small things that people do around me or to me.
I’ll probably never see her again but yesterday, an elderly woman totally made my day in more ways than she can even imagine. I was out walking to do some things and had stopped at a cross walk to wait. It was very bright, very hot and very, very, very sunny. As I stood on the sidewalk waiting for the light to change, an elderly woman approached. She was carrying an umbrella to shield herself from the blinding sun. She started talking and I turned to look at her.
I have absolutely no idea what she was saying as she was speaking in Spanish but I looked her right in the eyes, smiled at her and nodded. She kept talking, smiling back at me and then took her umbrella and held it over my head to protect me, even if for just a minute, from the glaring brightness. The light changed, she was still talking so I smiled at her again, waved and walked on towards the rest of my day.
That little act had an impact on me for the rest of the day and it looks like it will impact me today as well. I thought about her as I walked around, running my errands, I thought about her when I got home and talked to some friends, I thought about her as I tried to fall asleep last night and I have been thinking about her this morning.
To me, although I did not understand a word she said, I understood, on some very deep level, what kind of person she is and thought to myself how I want to have some of those traits myself. I’m not a mean person and I’m not a bad person. I do have some areas I need to work on and the actions of a few people in the past couple of months have really brought that home and I’m forced to look at things that I need and want to do differently. (Let me tell you something...if you have some negative people in your life and/or the type who lack any self confidence and couldn’t find anything...anything at all to be thankful or happy about? You know the kind...they are perpetually miserable...everything sucks...everything is trying, everything is just so hard....why them!? Every time they talk to you all they do is piss, bitch and moan about their lot in life....if you have those kind of people around you? Lose them! They are exhausting and take up way too much energy and if you aren’t careful, they will drag you down causing you to act stupidly yourself when you know damn good and well that is NOT the kind of person you truly are. F! THAT! Lose them! You will be restored instantly. And you will thank yourself for it later. And you’re going to have to tell them. Avoidance doesn’t work. You have to tell them that you don’t want them around because they will continue to try to suck the very essence out of you and if you wait too long, they will start to succeed and you will become someone you are not and you will pay for it. Word to the wise.)
And this woman....this umbrella wielding, kind stranger, brought the message full circle to me in that simple act of kindness.
While I do believe in fate sometimes, I also believe that what may appear random is not a mistake at all. Incidents like the one above happen to me all the time. And each and every time, I learn something very valuable about human beings and myself.
I believe some people are put in to your life on purpose. It’s up to us, when it happens, to take a moment and reflect why they were put in to our lives. When you look to the sky to ask for help to understand, don’t be surprised if the answer or at least part of the answer has been given to you by standing right next to you or right in front of you.
