Counting Blessings

Friday was “Parents come eat lunch with your kids at school Day.”

I woke up that day feeling barely up to being alive, let alone packing lunch for me and the 3 littles and hauling ourselves over to the school.  The thought was daunting.  I mean, it’s like 3 miles up hill both ways!

Okay. So it’s less than half a mile on an almost-entirely-level slope, most of which gets this amazing breeze right off the ocean, and is striped by the trunks of 20 ft palm trees lining the street.

See? Miserable.

When lunchtime came and the littles found out all their friends were going, and they were pretty excited about it… well, I packed a lunch (we were gonna need to eat anyway, right?) and hauled ourselves out the door. I was still feeling barely up to being alive. It may have showed a little. E was riding his bike just ahead of me while I trudged along behind with our well-worn double-jogger.

As a side-note, I really like the way strollers can double as walkers without actually looking like it.  I may look like I’m pushing that stroller – or at least I pretend that’s what it looks like – when, actually, it’s holding me up. A fellow pedestrian approached from the opposite direction.  I watched her assess me and my motley crew.  Her kind face lit up with a smile.

What precious children, she said.

Why, thank you, I replied.

She meant it.  I could tell.  In the space of 5 steps she was trying to build me up and lift me higher.  Maybe she noticed the stroller holding me up.  Her smile tried to go straight to my core and sprout one in me.  It probably would have worked if I wasn’t getting all choked up.

 How fun! she said.

And then as I mumbled something like, “Yep,” (and tried to mean it – I really did, even if “fun” isn’t quite the word I’d use to describe life at that moment) – she was behind me.

In a few moments a random stranger made a significant enough impact on me that I wanted to write it out here.  Not that words can really describe how much her kindness meant to me in that moment, or how much it still means to me.  I just thought I’d try to sketch out the memory so I won’t forget it.  If I remember correctly, that was the same day in which a neighbor dropped off a fresh loaf of pumpkin/cranberry bread, just for niceness.  Again I felt heaven touching our home and reminding me to keep my chin up.

You never know, folks, how much good you can do if you carry a smile around in your heart.  I am reminded of a hymn:

You can make the pathway bright,
Fill the soul with heaven’s light,
If there’s sunshine in your soul.
Turning darkness into day
As the shadows fly away,
If there’s sunshine in your heart today.

Have I done any good in the world today?

Have I helped anyone in need?

Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad?

If not, I have failed indeed.

Has anyone’s burden been lighter today

Because I was willing to share?

Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?

When they needed my help was I there?

Tagged as: kindness, love