“I Don’t Have 1…

How often do we feel so rushed that we can’t take a moment to show kindness or consideration to another person? We left the house late for work, so we are running behind on the highway, and cut someone off behind us in order to get in front of them and over in time to get off on our exit .. 

 

It’s just an example. The other night, I was celebrating with a group of friends at a restaurant. The celebration was a victory on my part – I was moving on from a job I had been holding, and I made some very incredible friends and connections while there.

 

So we were celebrating. It was such fun! I traveled to the restroom. This is the part where my life was changed. I was washing my hands and noticed that the third stall was occupied and I thought I had heard crying (or something, not sure what!) going on inside. Usually, I would just let it go and leave, not wanting to embarrass anyone, including myself .. But this time was different. I got a tug in my heart that prompted me to talk to this mysterious third-stall occupant. 

 

“Are you OK?” I asked, sheepishly..

 

Upon their response, I realized that they had indeed been crying and not only did my concern for this woman grow, but my inhibitions of embarrassment shrunk.

 

The details of the conversation are not as important. What you should know is that as I was quiet and waited for the woman to respond, asking a few quiet, caring questions and offering my assistance of a hug or if there was anything else I could do, she did open up to me and did allow me to give her a hug and console her. Ironically enough, she was going through a tough time that I similarly had been reminded of from my own past earlier that same day. I was able to give her perspective from “down the road,” if you will.

 

So how was MY life changed? God showed me the impact of a few things that evening — the fact that we have the ability to make a difference wherever we are at .. in the positive sense and also in the negative sense; we should not squander our time all to ourselves .. rushing from here to there doing out tasks and getting our errands done .. we should take the time to reach out to those around us and connect and care; maybe not everyone wants to connect and receive care, and that’s okay – but the ones that do, it will change their life, and it’s worth going out on a limb for the ones that do want to connect. Finally, we should not hide behind our inhibition of what we think that someone else might think if we reach out to them. Period.