Just When I Needed It Most (June 1999)

Note: This was originally published in Issue 284 of the Newsletter put out by the family business. This issue was published in June 1999.

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I was feeling stressed. I was behind schedule (as usual) with more things to do than time to do them in (as usual). I pulled up to a red light next to a car with one of those clear decals like many people use to name their college. It read "Your College Sucks!" I chuckled.

Not a mile down the road, I got stopped at another red light. On the corner was a young lady with a sign advertising pizza for $5 each. While I often get a kick out of watching creative people holding these signs, my attention was drawn to two young girls standing on either side of her. They were dressed up like pizza slices, and dancing in circles with great big smiles on their faces. I laughed.

I realized that I need only look around me to find things worth looking at!

Another day recently, I was feeling a bit of self-pity. "No one really appreciates me," I kept saying to myself. Just another example was now having to run to fill a supply need because someone used the backup without knowing that we refill it, generally through the mail. As I turned the corner, I saw a young lady comforting a baby in my peripheral vision. When I looked I saw there was another young lady trying to jack the car up, but obviously struggling. It appeared to me to be an accident in the making.

I circled the block, and asked if they minded if I helped them. They, of course, had no objections. It took five to eight minutes to change the tire. As I put the flat tire into the trunk, one told me she really appreciated my help; the other told me people like me make the world a better place.

I realized that there is a lot of therapy in doing what I can to make a bad situation better.

On my way home from a meeting in which nothing was resolved, and feeling a bit angry, I stopped for gas. A lady with an amputated leg was struggling to maintain her balance on one leg, and get the hose from the pump to her car. I told her I would help her, and she balanced back on her crutch.

While I pumped her gas, she told me she lost her leg in an accident with a drunk driver a little more than a year before. Just that week they had to amputate a little more of her leg, which required her to get a new prosthesis that wasn't done yet. With her prosthesis, pumping her own gas was a manageable task. As I put the hose away, and the cap back on her car, she said, "God bless you!"

I realized He always has.

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Other posts you might enjoy:

Is Not Caring Anymore a Mental Health Issue?
Firing My Shrink
Remembering Dad: The Rice Salad Standoff
Envisioning Infinity
Uncle Rudy: The Fix-It Man