Post #25

Thought for the day:

Thoughtful words and loving deeds help to fill empty lives.
……………………………………………………………..

I suspect most everyone has seen that TV commercial for Gibraltar Insurance, I believe its Gibraltar. (Isn’t that terrible? I love the commercial but don’t know for certain who or what it advertises). Anyway, it starts out with someone seeing a person doing something nice for someone else, so that, in turn, prompts them do a good turn for another person; that person then is inspired to perform a good deed for someone else, and so on. All of it done, not because each person had to do it, but because the example was set and the natural response was to pass it on to someone else.
In our Wednesday evening small group, we are studying a book titled The Blessing, written by John Trent and Gary Smalley. The message given in that TV commercial could have come right out of the authors’ mouths because it is a perfect example of some of the simple ways we can give a blessing to someone else.
I thought of this the other day as Grandma and I were sitting in the waiting room at Quest Diagnostics lab. When we got there, the waiting room was pretty full and had only four chairs vacant, two of those were right next to each other, so we sat down there. The other two seats were separated by a single chair where an older Asian man was sitting. We sat there for a few minutes (which always seems a lot longer when you’re in a waiting room), and I commented to Grandma on how quiet it was. No one was talking, even those who were sitting next to each and seemed to be together, and were silent. No smiles, no conversation. It was sort of eerie. So much so, in fact, that Grandma and I kept our voices very low (as low as Grandma can get her voice to go and still make me hear) for fear of causing some sort of panic. Shortly, a Latino woman came in accompanied by a little girl. The mother sat down in one of the empty chairs and the little girl kept trying to crawl onto her lap, but that wasn’t working out too well because the lady, being a bit overweight, didn’t have much of a lap to crawl onto. At that point the older man got up, smiled and bowed to the lady and moved to the other empty chair so the little girl could have a seat next to her mother.
It was a small thing, really, but it was noticed by everyone. People smiled and nodded toward the man, and the first thing you know people were talking to each other. Not long after, that a single woman (at least she was alone; I don’t know for sure if she was single) came, in looked around, and, sizing up the situation, decided to wait by standing in the corner. Feeling the spirit of the moment, I told Grandma that since we were there for her—not me—I would just go out and sit on a bench in the patio so the lone lady could have a seat. Again, it was no big deal at all but people observed and responded in a positive way to these simple acts of kindness.
We didn’t see any of those people after we left for home, of course, so I can’t say that the events in the waiting room inspired them to do similar spontaneous acts of niceness, but I’d like to think that that’s what happened—that day and extended on to other days.
As for me, I firmly believe that random acts of kindness and decency are catching. And that they multiply. The interesting thing is that they don’t cost anybody any money
…………………………………………………………………

In case you’re wondering about the riddle in blog #23, which asked: What wears shoes but has no feet—the answer is the sidewalk. Think about it.

Here's one more.

Take away my first letter; take away my second letter; take away my third letter; all right, take away all my letters, and yet I remain the same. What am I?

--30--