Because it feels so good!

I had the good fortune to be raised by parents who were always showing kindness to strangers.  My dad was always stopping the car to help a distressed traveler or to give a ride to a hitchhiker, and my mom was always bringing lonely or unfortunate strangers into our home for dinner or a place to hang out.  Over the years, our holiday gatherings grew to regularly include many of these individuals in our family celebrations.

So, what may seem odd, or maybe even dangerous, to other folks, seems rather natural to me.  Today, I was in a restaurant waiting for my take-out order when a very distressed woman appeared in the doorway.  An older gentleman sitting at the bar turned to her and asked, "what?"  In a shaky, hurried voice she babbled about needing to go home and get her insurance card.  She said she was hoping someone would help her out.  She offered $5 in gas money.  She said the cop had told her it was alright.

When she was done babbling, there was nothing but silence and the sound of a distant t.v. in the room.  After a few seconds, she turned around and walked out.

As she left the room, my carry-out arrived.  I had already paid so I was able to grab my sack and hurry out after her.  As I stepped outside, I looked down the street and saw that she was just reaching the end of the block.  I called out to her, "Ma'am!"  She turned around.  "I can take you were you need to go."

The poor thing almost collapsed with gratitude.  She hurried towards me and I led her to my car.  As we pulled out of the parking lot, she began telling me in hurried, choppy sentences, what had happened to her.

It seems she had parked her car along the curb and was opening her door to get out, when a passing vehicle rammed into her door, all but ripping it from the frame.  I had passed the accident site on my way to the restaurant and had noticed a police car and a bunch of glass in the street.  Kim (it turns out that was her name) did not have her insurance card or information with her.  She hadn't even taken her purse with her when she left the house.  The cop told her it would take him about 20 minutes to write out the accident report.  If she could produce proof of insurance before he was done, well and good.  But he also warned her about leaving the scene of an accident.

Kim looked like she'd had a rough life.  Her face had the leathery skin of a life-time smoker.  I guessed she looked older than her age, but I placed her somewhere in her 50's.  She certainly didn't look like a Kim.  More like a Betty or Franny.  She talked nervously the whole time in sentences peppered with bad grammar.  She told me that she had just been ticketed yesterday for driving without a seat belt.  She was upset about the money she had just paid to have some repairs done to the car.  Her voice was raspy with emotion and I thought she might break down and cry any minute.

We reached her house and she ran in.  Seconds later she returned with her purse and an armload of files.  I took her back to the parking lot where I had picked her up.  Before getting out of the car she reached into a pocket and pulled out a wad of paper.  Buried inside was a $5 bill which she extracted and handed to me.

"Oh, no!  That's alright.  You keep that."  I told her." 

"Really?  Are you sure?" she asked me in a trembling voice on the verge of tears.

"Yes.  And good luck.  I hope everything works out o.k. for you."

As I was driving away, I thought about the good feeling I had growing in my chest.  I thought about how interesting my day had gotten all of a sudden.  I thought about the small difference I had just played in helping someones bad day go a little bit better.  I thought about how lucky I was to have been raised by parents who so beautifully modeled Jesus' message to "love thy neighbor."  And I determined to not only help out when an occasion presents itself, but to actually seek opportunities.

My sister shared this quote by Viktor Frankl with me:

"What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general, but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment."

I think I like that!

Regrets

It's been raining for a thousand days......  I like the rain, especially if I don't have anywhere to go and can spend the day curled up inside sipping tea.  I love the way the rain sounds when it pours down in heavy sheets and sounds like a train rumbling by.  And I love the way it sounds when it drizzles and drips sounding like a tiny percussion orchestra.

The tea I'm sipping was given to me by my hostess in Istanbul.  (Every time I turned around, someone was offering me more tea, usually accompanied by a plate of something to nibble on; nuts or sweets.)  And as I sip my Turkish tea, I'm filled with regret because I remember the Turkish tea set that I almost owned.....

On the day I left Turkey,  Akif took me to the airport and he insisted on giving me a fistful of money to spend.  I told him that I still had money left from the last time he took me to the airport, but he wouldn't listen.  He said he wanted me to take the money and spend it in the airport.  Well.... I certainly don't want to offend anyone!  So, I took the money and we said good-bye.

I had about two hours to wait for my flight and the Istanbul airport is full of interesting shops so off I went.  After eating and drinking a small portion of the money, I decided I would exchange the rest for US dollars at an exchange bureau.  But before doing that, I wandered into a shop that sold traditional Turkish items; Turkish delight, beautiful scarves made from Turkish cotton, jewelry, spices, pottery, trinkets, dried fruit and nuts.  And tea sets.

I was quite taken with the tea sets.  The cups and saucers were made of glass and had beautiful, lacy designs on them.  Many of them had gold swirled in with the colors and others were etchings all done in gold.  I fell in love with a set that had colorful dots on the sides and gold rimming on the lips of the cups.  The set cost 70 Turkish lira which is about $45 US.  I stood there and agonized for almost 30 minutes over whether or not to buy it.  I kept asking myself why I needed it?  I had already lived for 47 years without a Turkish tea set.  I was pretty sure I could live another 47 without it.  How often did I drink tea, anyway?  I'm more a coffee drinker.  And I'd have to hold it on the plane since the box was too big to fit in my carry-on.  And if I didn't buy it, I'd go home with 45 more dollars.

I didn't buy it.

Since coming home, I've thought about that tea set several times a week with regret. I wish I had bought it.  And here is the conflict for me; I don't NEED it!  I spend so much time in Haiti, with people who live on almost nothing.  It has gotten difficult for me to justify spending money on stuff I don't need.  This question of what I need and what I don't gets difficult as I wonder just where do I draw the line? 

On the other hand, what did I end up doing with the $45 I didn't spend on the tea set?  I have no idea!  The money is gone and now I have no money AND no tea set!!!!

So, in the future, I'm not going to hesitate to make the purchase.  And that decision has lead me to make a bigger, more significant decision.  I'm not going to hesitate to do something nice for someone when I can.

Maybe those things seem unconnected.  But I've never regretted making a decision to buy something I wanted, the same way I've never regretted spending the time, energy, or money to do something nice for someone.  I've only regretted what I haven't done.

Oh dear!  While I've been busy philosophising, my tea has gotten cold.  I'm off to re-heat it!

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!

If this photo doesn't make you fall off your chair laughing, it's only because you haven't read my post from a couple of days ago titled "The Swinging Mailbox."  Read it.  I implore you!

So, why is this mailbox sitting on top of a trash receptacle?  I can only assume there was a serious design flaw in the original mailbox structure.  I haven't had a chance to talk with my dad so I don't know what the story is.  I'm wondering if he has placed the mailbox thusly so that it can be collected with the rest of the trash?

From the looks of things, I don't believe this is the evil work of teenage thugs nor the result of impact with a moving vehicle.  I think this mailbox committed suicide!

Happy Anniversary to me!

Yesterday was my one year anniversary.  It has been 365 days since I last had gainful employment.  It wasn't until I was looking through my facebook notes this morning that I realized what a funny coincidence this is.  Here is a picture I posted to facebook telling how I spent my first day of unemployment.

And here's a picture of how I spent my day yesterday.

I don't know, it just seems beyond weird that in my entire life, I've probably only  spent two days working outside in my flower/herb gardens and it just so happens that they fell exactly one year apart.  And it just so happens that I took pictures both days!  I promise you, this was not by design!

So anyway..... the gardens were a mess!  I had been thinking about working in them for almost two weeks and with each beautiful day that passed, I felt guiltier and guiltier for not getting this done.  So yesterday, I went up the road to what used to be Sandpoint (it has some new name now, which I can't remember) and spent $50 on a few perennials and some top soil.  I came home determined to work outside and get my patio looking nice.

Here are the steps I usually follow when attacking any project that demands physical labor:

1. Spend several days pretending like I'm going to do it, but then realize that it is too late in the day to get started.  Make a plan to start first thing the next morning.  Do this for several days, or maybe even weeks.

2.  Realize I need to make a list of things to do and gather before I can start my project.  Make a list and then repeat step one.

3.  Begin collecting the items on my list.

4.  Once everything is finally ready and all purchases have been made, sit down and look at the area in which I will be working.  Check the time to see if it's lunch time.

5.  Eat lunch.

6.  Start in with the physical labor.  Work hard for five minutes then take a break to stand up and look around.  Work hard for ten more minutes. 

7.  Sit down and take a break.

8.  Wonder if maybe I've been a bit too ambitious in thinking this is a project I can finish in one day.

9.  Go back to work and repeat steps six through eight until the project is done.

Sometimes, it doesn't go exactly like this.  Sometimes, after step eight, I decided the project is too big and I quit for the day.  But yesterday, I was a whirling Turkish dervish!  I got the project all done, including planting two tomato plants and washing down the patio furniture.  Here are the before and after pictures of the garden.

Before......

After......

And to top it all off, I made a delicious supper, too! 
I am Wonder Woman!  I am too amazing for words!!!