Gratitude

It was a beautiful morning today.  One of those rare days when it was only about 85 in the shade, so I opened the back door and sat on the stoop to drink my coffee and look at the back yard.  It's pretty crispy.  The crepe myrtle is doing fine and so is my big apple tree.  The little apple tree just ain't gonna make it, but the plum will.  I'be been watering.  And even though I've watered the rhodedendron the most, it is cooking in the sun.  Sigh. But a little juvenile kite sat on the power line while its mother brought it cicadas to snack on.  I remembered another warm summer day when my Grandma visited me.  We had coffee outside both mornings, before it got too warm, and talked to the cardinals and squirrels.  Eventually, the sun came up and the dogs wandered indoors, so that was my cue to get on with the day.  

I took my car to a little self-wash place on Flood street there in Norman.  It's hot lately. Like 113 degrees during the day.  And it has been so for some time.  Before it got too hot this morning, I thought I'd get this little chore out of the way.  We are going to sell my SUV because it will be more fun to drive up with just us two and Eleanor.  I'm hoping that we can afford to have a moving company move the household and we can meet them up there.  

Anyway, car, hot, wash.  

A man in his fifties greeted me. He worked there and made change for the five dollar bill in my hand.  He stands outside all day and has a tan three inches deep into his skin.  He was missing some teeth too, though it didn't impede his speech.  He was soft spoken and his eyes had a gentleness to them.  When I got done cleaning my car, he asked if I could spare a dollar.  Yes, I can spare a dollar.  Of course I can.  I held his hand for a moment and looked directly into his eyes and wished him well, because he is a human being. He made me realize something too.  That if someone genuinely needs assistance and they ask you for it, not only should you give what you can, but you might also think to thank them for the opportunity to show compassion to another person.  I'm not always a good person, but sometimes I get the opportunity to even things out a little bit.  

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong.  Because someday in your life you will have been all of these."  ~George Washington Carver