Archives for 2011

If there is not much at stake for ourselves, the outcomes do not affect us directly, we tend to do better. If the results are not a reflection on ourselves and the upshot is not a casting of a shadow on us, we do better at whatever comes our way.

When the main concern is forever our own indulgence and climbing, it wears the soul down, making us social pariahs. Nothing is as much of a turn off as someone in constant need of stroking and patting of the ego. It is tiring for the person and exhausting for the people surrounding them.

Chores, works, kindness, charity, all those are things done for the sake of doing not for the end result or to see something come out of it for us as individuals. If the serving of kindness and the offering of help is connected with a selfish desire to take the upper hand, it results in discourse and unkindness with a touch of anger and hostility.

Do the thing unto the Lord. Do what needs doing without waiting for grandiose results and outcomes. Do the thing without personal gain. Picking up garbage on the side of the road will not result in a commendation but doing the right thing bending down, picking it up and placing it in the next receptacle they encounter is an end unto itself.

If the time passes and you do not do the kindness or the giving, wait for the next chance and act on it with selfless giving. Many opportunities present themselves every day for the choosing and the choice.

When you see a weed, pick it.

I complained that it was too hot, complained it was too muggy. I found it hard to be outside that day and much of a burden to be around others. Nothing suited me, everything crashed around my comfort.

I whined that my plans were delayed beyond my decisions and my schemes held up beyond my endurance. I grumbled at fate and my lot for my tactics on the back burner, my layouts, my…..my…..my…..mine….mine.

I did all this at the poolside in comfort and in the middle of paradise.

And there within minutes arrived alone, a small thin woman in a motorized wheelchair. Her muscles responded slowly to her needs with every move. She arrived at a chaise lounge and proceeded with care to move herself to it. After she sat she started to take off her clothes one piece at a time with excruciating effort to reveal a bathing suit.

I cringed but she seemed determined to her end. One piece at a time came off with deliberation. Her hands moved three, four times over the same piece to get it to its rightful place. At last came her hat and it took the better of 4 minutes to adjust it with her palsied hands to perch on her determined head.

Ashamed of myself and my whining, I kept an eye on this amazing creature but she was not done yet. She wiggled into a tube around herself then got in her wheelchair to the edge of the swimming pool. The amazing creature slid off her chair into the aqua water and stayed there for 30 minutes.

Gratitude seemed lost in my complaints. Gratitude forgotten in my comfort. Gratitude by the wayside for the obvious gifts of life.

Thankfulness is an offering of sacrifice better than all the words and the prayers we offer our Maker.

I craved more shoes till I saw the woman in the wheelchair with crooked feet.