Good evening all. It has been a while since I have had time to write, and I have missed you all. Writing, for me, is such a release and I have so missed putting my thoughts down and sharing. Part of the thing that has kept me writing is that work has kept me realllllly busy. The other reason is that the world has been so negative of late, and I was finding it hard not to touch on some of those topics. While I do accept and deal with the negativity, I don’t like to spread more of it.
With that in mind, tonight’s post might seem that I am bringing negativity into the world, but stay with me and I will try to bring it around to positive. I want to share some of the events that I have witnessed or been part of over the last week. I bring these events up because I am concerned for our young people. I see so many posts about younger people not living up to expectations. However, like I have mentioned in the past, they learn their behavior from somewhere.
The first one happened at our daughter’s First Communion. I really had expected to be able to write about this beautiful ceremony, and I am sure in a few days I will. However, I will share the events after the Mass. Now if you are not Catholic and never been to a First Communion, I want to let you know that this is supposed to be an extremely reverent event. Normally, after the service the children are brought up on the altar for pictures. A group shot is taken and then individuals. On most occasions, parents line up civilly and await their turn. NORMALLY!
I lectured at this Mass and walked out with the procession during the closing song. We walked out the back and I quickly walked around the side of the church to get back in to take photos. I walked back in and stopped. There on the altar were the children and the parents. The two people in charge were trying very hard to regain order. They started getting the parents back down onto the floor so that pictures could start. I attempted to move toward this cloud only to be pushed back not once, not twice, but three times. I swear I thought some rock band had walked out to start a concert. But wait…there’s more.
My mother had the chance, along with my brother, to fly out for this special event. Since my wife just had knee replacement surgery and my mother uses a walker, we had the chance to sit in the first row which is reserved for those who are handicapped. During the fray mentioned above. My 78-year-old mother stayed in the pew sitting quietly waiting. My wife turned around in time to see a mother climb over from the second pew into the first. She CLIMBED OVER the pew in church. She then, without hesitation, while still standing on the first pew, climbed over my mother. My mom sat there not knowing what to do and when my wife said something, the lady ignored her and moved on.
I get it that not everybody attending the Mass was Catholic and may not understand the service. However, I would think that any person would have enough common sense to know that this is not acceptable. The children stood on the altar watching all of this unfold. Some of them actually had fear in their eyes as they watched all of this.
The next situation happened this morning at a Starbucks near my house. This Starbucks, like most, is extremely busy. The parking lot has enough spaces, but when it gets busy it can mean that you are parking a bit away from the building. We pulled in hoping to get in and out with some drinks and be on our way. However, life throws lessons at you at the most unexpected of times.
The benefit to my wife’s surgery is that we have a handicap placard for a short time. Okay. That benefit might be more for me than her. So as we entered the lot, I saw a blue spot right in front of the building. This would be perfect so that we could all go in and place our order. While my wife gets around on the cane, it does still take a lot of effort with the cane. So that chance to get something feet from the door was a great surprise. Then we saw a bigger surprise. In-between the two spots was the blue thatched pattern with big letters stating – No Parking. Although it might have been hard to read with the car that was parked directly on top of the writing. We were able to get a spot on the far side, and left the family in the car while I went in for our order. I know – this is not the end of the world.
I did take a moment to look at the car and see a driver sitting there. For once, I went over and knocked on the window. She refused to open even a crack. I pointed beneath her and said, “This is a no parking spot, and you are blocking people who need the handicapped from parking here.” She shrugged her shoulders and turned away. I then realized that she was typing away on her computer. Only later did it dawn on me that she was sitting in the parking lot using the free Wi-Fi from Starbucks.
I mentioned something to the employee who told the manager. I could hear the manager respond with, “I don’t run the parking lot.” The poor employee turned back to me and tried to smile when she said, “The manager will go out in a minute.”
The last event came at K-Mart. We stood in line waiting for the person ahead of us to be checked out. She stood their talking away on her phone. While I have seen this many times, this person surprised me. I watched a few times as the clerk tried to talk with her, and she refused to halt her conversation to even acknowledge the man. So we all waited for her to break the dialogue in order to give the clerk money or a response. He stood there very calmly and waited. She finally finished and left.
Now I started this by saying I wasn’t going to be negative and yet it seems like that last 1090 words are nothing but negative. Well, that is dependent on how you take things. I stopped today and wondered why the world brought these things into my life. At first I was allowing events to take me down. I could sense frustration and stress over these and other events. Then I stopped.
A friend recently gave me a book, that I am half-way through, and it talks about life much like I have tried to live over the last year. Find the reason. Find the lesson. Find the good. So that is what I am doing. I am looking for the lessons.
I pondered about this and hear is what I heard come to my head. What about you? What have you done? I started wondering what I have done in recent days, weeks, months where I have put my wants above all others. I may not have climbed over pews, but I am sure that I wronged others. I am sure that I have been self-centered to the point that I was totally unaware of my surroundings. I am taking this as life’s message to me that before I can worry about what others are doing, I better make sure that I am doing right.
So negativity? NO. Positive. These events happened. I cannot change that. What I can change is me. So I am walking away from this by being making sure that I am not forgetting to look outside of me when I act. I will make the change to not do actions that cause hardships for others.
So I invite all to find that positive.
Thanks for meandering with me.