Today was one of those days where feeling sorry for myself was the norm. Nothing bad had happened. I just decided to put on my self pity wrap and stay in it all day. Then at break I was rummaging through my wallet and found a quote I carry to remind myself to be kind. Being kind isn't one of my strong points. So I changed my Facebook status to reflect my attempt at kindness and went about the rest of my day.
Later in the afternoon, a woman came in that is known to steal. She usually loads her cart with ads and stuffs what she wants free under the ads. When she is done shopping, she pushes her cart out the door and loads her car with purchases and freebees alike. Well, forgetting that I was to be kind, I followed her out the door. She did not have any ads in the cart, but did have a pretty large purse sitting in the kid seat. Putting stuff under her purse is another on of her tactics.
I followed her out to bring the cart back in and to be sure that she didn't have anything in her cart. I told her that due to the weather, we didn't want to leave the carts out. She thanked me for taking it in for her and then told me that she had recently had knee surgery and walking on the snowy sidewalks frightened her. So remember that scene in How the Grinch Stole Christmas where his heart grew two sizes that day? That was me. I offered her my arm and helped her get to her car safely. My motive was not pure, but from somewhere I heard the message- The first is to be kind.
I don't know why this woman steals. It is never anything she needs. There was an As Seen On TV steamer, two big bags of Skittles, two Christmas cards over three separate occasions. When she comes in, we act like the freakin gestapo trying to bust her. And for what? Is what she doing wrong? Sure it is. There is no way to justify stealing from a store. Especially Skittles and Christmas cards. But what I am doing is wrong as well. I have no room to judge her. The second is to be kind.
I knew that I would blog about this, it was eating at me all afternoon. But when I got home and logged on to Facebook, I was struck by two other items.
The first was a photograph of a little guy named Eli Horn. Eli in currently in a hospital in New York fighting for his life. He had a bone marrow transplant recently and is now suffering from some serious complications. It was almost three years ago that Ashlyn was in a hospital in Iowa City fighting a very similar fight.
After I said the prayer for Eli that was said for Ashlyn so often I went to my home page.
Grace Chance, a fourteen year old from Urbandale, died today from brain cancer. I did not know her or her story. Only yesterday I saw a car in the parking lot with window paint in honor of Grace. I said that same prayer yesterday.
These three events have reminded me that there is a whole lot going on in this world that is much harder than whatever it is I am facing. So I come to this, probably the most important thing I will learn all day. And the third is to be kind.
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