Monday, December 5, 2011
Life's Morsels: Angels On Our Doorsteps....
Life's Morsels: Angels On Our Doorsteps....: I am a firm believer that God puts people and ANGELS in our paths for all sorts of reasons. We may not always know why at the time, and as ...
Angels On Our Doorsteps....
It's really hard to not be cynical these days, who to trust, who not to trust. We see people sleeping under bridges that are homeless, the not so scraggly man standing at the end of the exit ramp asking for money, people everywhere, in every town, in every setting, are hurting, some for real and others just acting the part for the handout. BUT, you never know when that one person that you avoid like the plague may actually be that angel in disguise put there to test you or bless you. So, what do you do? How do you know? The answer is simply, you don't...
Every day, we each have an opportunity or two to make someone's day better (including our own), to change a life, share God, bring a smile, basically, we all have the chance daily to be the blessing to someone else.
You never know what form it will take, it could be as simple as a smile, as warm as a hug or as lasting as just listening when someone needs to talk. The blessing comes from your heart and your willingness to give back or be there for that one Angel on your doorstep at that moment in time.
Last week, I wrote that sometimes, we all just need a good cry. It's cleansing, it's restoring, it's a release, but it's also a way that we know our hearts, our tender spots are still there. There are people and situations all around us that we tend to tune out because we have become desensitized to the cries of those around us, the world around us. We have turned off our senses to those that are a little different, seem a little threatening, a little diverse. Last week, I learned a very important lesson and thanked God for that Angel that He planted on my doorstep at work and the impact it has had on me ever since. This is His story....
On Friday, I was wrapping things up at the office, sorting mail, answering phone calls, and just getting ready to tie things up for the week. I'm there by myself a lot of the time and have gotten very cautious about who I open the door to. I keep the door locked all the time, as we've had some pretty unsavory characters show up, looking for handouts our free advice. But this day, it was different. I had been on hold with a contractor for quite awhile and as I sat there blankly starring out the window, I saw a car pull up and park and an elderly man, all stooped over, got out and started walking slowly and carefully down the sidewalk, tapping his cane with every step he took. He appeared tired and very weary and I noticed that he had what looked to be a fresh head wound. A long gash, with numerous stitches, reached from one side of his head to the other. I'm ashamed to admit that I almost didn't open the door and greet him, but there was just something about him that gave me the feeling that he was okay.
He stood before me telling me that he had been in an accident earlier and was looking for a doctor. He said that he was from down south of Macon and he had been driving an acquaintance up here to be with family. He wasn't real familiar with the highways up here and the exits and all. Someone side swiped his car while he was changing lanes. His car was damaged, but even worse, he and his friend were hurt pretty bad. He refused an ambulance when the State Patrol offered, and he took his traffic ticket and drove his friend to the hospital for treatment. That's when the patched up the gash on his head. I'm not real sure what happened after that, whether the hospital offered to get him help or if he just left, but he had been driving around for quite awhile, looking for a doctor's office and an attorney. Lost, alone, confused and afraid, he found our office and pulled in. I felt so bad that there was nothing I could do short of calling 911, so I did the next best thing. I listened and I just let him talk. It was 30 minutes that has changed me and I won't ever forget it.
As he talked, he shook, his eyes were filled with fear, and with tears beginning to spill from his eyes, he began to talk about his life. His wife had passed away as had his children. He had no family left. He was 87 and had been driving around all day since he left the ER, because he didn't know where he was or what to do or where to go. He just needed someone to tell him what to do.
As he talked, he seemed to be reliving memories and he began to tell me stories from his life. At 17, he joined the navy and was stationed at Pearl Harbor. He told me about being blown off of the ship he was on and then getting caught up in the wake it created as it began to sink. He survived, but all around him were the lifeless bodies of many of his shipmates. He was rescued and tended to and later on, was aboard another ship that went down off the coast of Scotland and he nearly lost his life again. He watched as his ship went down with many of the crew and the admiral on board as it did. He tearfully said, "I survived, but they didn't."
He asked if there was a doctor available. no' I'm so sorry, and I offered again to call 911. He had already been to the ER. I think he just needed someone to listen and to care enough to treat him like a human being and not a number or just another case in the ER. I told him over and over that I was sorry there was no one there to help him, and he said "it's okay, you already have...thank you for just listening to an old man." With those words, I reached out and gently put my hand on his crooked shoulders and gave him a hug. He walked away, tears rolling down his ruddy cheeks, and he turned and looked at me one last time before he got in his car. The only thing he said was "thank-you".
I waved goodbye and stood there and watched as he drove off, tears streaming down my face, and I said to myself, "no, I need to thank you." He had no idea how much he had done for me. He had no idea of the gift that he had given me. He had no idea that he was the blessing that I needed at just that moment, on just that day, in just that place.
Since Friday, I haven't been able to stop thinking about him. I can still see him standing there, afraid, hurting, lost, and I wonder where he is, if he is okay, if he blessed someone else that day as much as he did me.
I know that he is in good hands. God has him, of that I am sure and I thank God for that special angel that made my life just a little bit better because of the time that he spent with me...
I'm not asking you to take risks or to do anything unsafe, but I am asking that you look twice at that person standing on the corner with their hand reached out for help. There are a lot of scammers and ruthless people out there that know the time is right to mooch and panhandle instead of trying to work, but there are people that truly need the help, whether it's clothes or a job or money for food, or shelter, or just an ear to listen. If you don't feel safe with that person on the street corner, go volunteer to help at a shelter or soup kitchen. Lend an ear while, offer a hug and let them know you care, and so does God.
It's Christmas time...give of yourself. The gift you get in return may turn out to be the blessing you receive when you greet that "Angel on your doorstep".
Love you all, God bless and Merry Christmas,
Kaye
Life's Morsels: A Tale Of Two Geysers Otherwise Known As "The Day ...
Life's Morsels: A Tale Of Two Geysers Otherwise Known As "The Day ...: It has been a beautiful day, bright sun on a December Saturday, good visit with my folks and a wonderful drive home, totally enjoying a gorg...
A Tale Of Two Geysers Otherwise Known As "The Day Old Faithful Arrived In My Kitchen"
My husband of nearly 37 years greets me at the car door with "don't be mad at me"! What. What do you mean? What did you do? Did you break something? What's wrong?
"No, no. Didn't break anything, but I did kind of make a mess"
I'm afraid to ask, but to make the rest of this story fall in place, let me give you a little background.
We live in an older home. It has its share of issues from time to time, one of which is an old cast iron pipe that is the main drain line for the plumbing in the house. Periodically, it gets "gunky" and we have to rent the power auger, and my husband, with his achy knees and paining back, has to crawl through a window of sorts that leads into the crawl space under our house. Not a lot of fun! Every time he has to do it, he threatens that the next person that puts something down the drain other than liquid, has to make the journey into the black abyss called the "hole". So, needless to say, on Thanksgiving night, when the kitchen backed up (after multiple rounds of dishes and the turkey sliding off the cutting board), he wasn't a happy camper. He tried the obvious stuff, and I was not about to take on Walmart at 10 pm on Thanksgiving night to buy Drano, so we cleaned as much as we could and decided we would tackle it when he got home from work on Friday.
Fast forward to Friday afternoon. Ran the dishwasher. Oops, my bad. Momentary brain lapse....sink filling up quickly, me plunging frantically, son holding drain stopper on other side of sink. Phew. It goes down, slowly, but it goes down. So, do I call him and tell him? Nope. We'll just wait until he gets home.
Home Depot is a life saver. He wasn't happy to be doing the drain thing this late at night, but it had to be done, so off he went, returned with the power auger and an attitude of defiance over the whole situation.
Not gonna be a good Friday night. I had dragged all of the Christmas totes out of the storage room in the basement and overall, the den looked like it had thrown up Christmas. It was everywhere, absolutely everywhere and making your way through that colorful chaos with a 6' ladder and a 50 pound power auger wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do.
Okay, he's made it through the "window" into the "hole". Fussy, but handles the task and our son and I run trips back and forth to the garage to retrieve screw drivers, flash lights, trash bags, etc... Four hours later, the drain, for all practical purposes, seems to be running clear. One a.m., the men are in the back yard, cleaning the line on the power auger. Nasty job. Just a nasty job. Glad it wasn't me doing the cleaning. I did however, have to hold the utility light during the process, so I wasn't totally free from the task.
Good job! Sink doing great, everything else seems to be good, UNTIL......Friday.
Ran the dishwasher, twice! Washed Christmas china and glassware...uh o. The sink is half full of water, and that's just not good. Phone call, "um, honey, the sink is backing up again". "Did you spill something down the drain?" "Nope, nothing. Been very careful. But it is backing up again."
Quick run to store, Drano, down the drain, fingers crossed, better, but not perfect. At a family dinner that night, my brother-in-law suggested we try running an auger from the roof vent down. Maybe a bird's nest, maybe leaves. Who knows!
So here we are on my beautiful Saturday with sunshine, Christmas carols and beautiful sunset and here he stands at my car door asking me to not be mad. Do you see where this is going? I'm sure by now that you've got a hint about what's coming next.
I'm prepared for the worst. He walks me into the kitchen and our son is just finishing up mopping up the floor, counters, walls, stove, basically, you name it! Anything that was within 5' of my kitchen sink was fair game, including the brand new kitchen rugs that had only been put down on the floor a few days earlier. The first words out of my son's mouth were "mom, don't be mad at dad, it was an accident, and I cleaned it up...don't be mad, please don't be mad..."
Here's what happened. The Man, accompanied by auger, climbed up on the roof, and he ran that line down through the roof vent into the trap for the kitchen sink. Nothing, absolutely nothing came up, no leaves, no bird's nest, no squirrels, no pine cones...literally nothing! So, frustrated about what's next, he ponders the whole thing for awhile and decides that maybe, just maybe, he might need something with a little oomph behind it, so he drags an extension cord and the leaf blower up to the roof and positions the leaf blower over the top of the vent and let's it rip! OMG!!!!
Our son, who is quietly sitting in the living room playing a video game, shoots up out of his chair, totally freaking out over the two geysers that are shooting up out of the kitchen sink drains. Screaming, running crazy searching for towels, whatever to block the jets of water that are pretty impressive. He heads outside to find out just what is going on....and that's when my husband paled and moments later, greeted me in the driveway begging me to not be mad at him. I huffed and puffed for awhile, especially while I was stripping counters of everything, sanitizing everything in sight and steam cleaning the floor. OY! Okay, so I was mad, but when it was all over, I just sat there and laughed about it. I would have given anything to see the look on my son's face when that water shot up from the drains. And, I kind of wish I would have taken a picture of my husband while he was standing at my car door begging me to not be mad.
It just all became very funny, and yes, we are speaking! I got over my frustration quickly and quietly chuckle to myself. Besides, I can't tell you how many people were probably rolling on the floor in hysterics when I told them about "The Tale of Two Geysers" in my kitchen.
Life's little moments...that's what keeps us going. Besides which, it was just water, after all!
I'm sure that God had a good chuckle. Maybe it was a lesson for me in patience. Maybe it was a lesson for my son in diligence, or perhaps for my husband, a lesson in being persistent. Who knows, but things are cleaned up and now, well, it's just funny.
Love to all of you and God bless!
Kaye
by the way, the drain is still backed up! Any ideas?
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