Here is a “filler food” post I recently put up. If you don’t know what I’m talking about click here.
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Dear Santa,
There are of course many things that I would like. And don’t for a minute believe that I am to saintly to ask. If you wanted to toss (very gently of course) that new lens I’ve been dreaming about I’d be fine with that. But more then all the gifts – my wish is that people might give one another a reason to believe again. With all the incredible advances that technology affords we have misplaced kindness and respect for one another. We rush and rush from task to task with out ever taking notice for the soul in desperate need of lifting.
It was cold! When I dropped the girls off at preschool it was only 10 degrees. I was so thankful that I had been able to purchase them the scarves and mittens last week and even more grateful that the teachers were rushing the children indoors to wait for their classmates instead of at their normal spot along the outside wall. From there I headed to my Doctor’s appointment. I would be early as usual. As I slowed at the light I noticed a family crossing the street. Both mom and dad were each holding the hand of a little one. The children were about the same age as my girls. I watched as the mom stopped another walker to ask, what I could only assume were for directions. How far could they be going if they didn’t know how to get there? I looked back in my rearview mirror as I pulled forward and watched them trudge on. My car was empty of children (something that is a rarity in itself) and I just happened to have the right sized car seats for their kids buckled safely into my warm 7 passenger. It took a few seconds as I weighed the options. I could give them a ride but I would most likely be late to my appointment or miss it entirely. It had taken weeks for this referral and it’s never a cinch to divvy out the kids for these things. I started to surge forward toward the freeway onramp but before I knew it I was making a U-turn (don’t think I’m to angelic – that U-turn was extremely illegal!) I pulled off the road and asked if I could give them a ride. They agreed and told me they were headed to the WIC office. I knew exactly where it was and it was miles down the road. We removed layer by layer to get the kids small enough to fit into the car-seats and headed the opposite direction I’d intended down the road.
I would say, it’s what anyone would have done. But I know that’s not true. It’s not even a guarantee that it’s what I would have done at any other moment in time. With all the rushing from point A to point B it seems that we don’t allow ourselves the opportunities to do good anymore. And because it’s the rarity to offer kindness or compassion and the norm to degrade and demand with a “what’s mine” attitude the world has stopped believing in it’s self. I’m no angel. I have had had many a thought enter my mind of a service I could perform and push it out for lack of some such thing. I have no way of knowing what good my service might have done. Our world is in hard times and more so now then ever are each of us in need to kindness and compassion. In Dicken’s classic ‘A Christmas Carol’, when Scrooge questions Marly it is explained that, “It is required of every man,” the Ghost returned, “that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world — oh, woe is me! — and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!
I can not even imagine what good could transpire in this world if we could see now what turn of happiness might result with out gifts of kindness. The fact is, the world is cold. And for many it is also sad and lonely. I wish in the spirit of the little Babe who spent His entire mortal life in service that we would all allow a little more time for being aware and recognizing opportunities to serve His lambs.
Sincerely,
Leah
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