I have gone through different stages of procrastination throughout my life. As a child, I did things last minute, like studying for a test or completing my summer reading the week before school started. By college, I got better at time management, but when I started a family, I realized that organization was not only imperative, but it meant more sanity and calmness to an already chaotic life.
Now that my youngest child just graduated from high school this week, I’ve noticed that I have relapsed back to those days when I do things only under pressure. I realize I need to make some adjustments, so I get back to the balance needed to feel less hurried and agitated.
I was in charge of the decor for the after graduation dinner. Flowers weren’t even on my list, but I still had to fill a room that held around 30 people with decorations. I used to love this kind of assignment. I could do it in my sleep. Then I realized that it would require a trip to Party City for balloons, a large CONGRATS sign and things like that.
Shopping at Party City at the end of the school year is the equivalent to going there for a costume the week before Halloween. You’ll not only have around 500 costume choices to pick from, but your child’s most favorites are either out of stock or not in his or her size.
Two words if you are ever in this dilemma: Online shopping in the first week of October and NO, he can’t wear it until Halloween, or you’ll risk having your child beg for another costume that he hasn’t worn yet.
Anyway….. light bulb! ZZZzzzap! This past weekend, I was in the city of Delray Beach, which is about 50 miles north of Miami, where I was less than a mile ride away from a Walmart.
I needed dog food and other miscellaneous items besides decorations. No brainer. I head to Walmart, snatch my grocery cart, and start grabbing the things on my list.
I was in the dog food aisle hoisting the most enormous 40 lbs. bag of dog food into my cart, when this lovely man with his wife and a child around 8-years-old asked if he could help me. We are not in Kansas anymore, or I mean Miami where chivalry is non-existent.
Don’t let the door hit me in the face even though I am right behind you, all you have to do is keep your hand there a second longer so I can get through the door.
In this instant, I am speechless, but I can mutter a few “thank yous” and “so so so so sweet of you to help me.” I am so pleased that I didn’t try out a karate move with a low, hard kick to this man’s ankle by sensing someone I didn’t know was nearby! (In Miami, a move like that would come in handy even though I don’t have any of those moves mastered.) I think I must have let my defenses down since I usually know all the people within a few feet radius of me. Hmmmmmm. Improvement.
Off I go to the decor aisle, and I start to panic a bit when all I see are Father’s Day decorations. What!? Father’s Day is June 16! It is May 28th, the day before graduation. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, this can’t be!
I check out with the cashier quickly since I have a lunch date with my first mate. I get to my car and open the trunk. An SUV stops right behind my car, and the sweet man (with his family in the car) from inside the store who helped me earlier, jumps out of his car and runs to help me transfer the dense dog food from my cart into my vehicle. That’s it. No hidden or secret agenda. The purest form of kindness.
I know without a doubt, this man is an angel on earth, and he not only carried my dog food, but he also carried my spirits. Wow! I am experiencing extraordinary and friendly behavior again that used to be typical etiquette that people did when I was younger and I realize it still exists today in other parts of the world. It is just so much harder to find. Why is that?
What a beautiful example for his son to see his father do such a nice thing for a stranger. I pray that these sorts of things sprinkle and swell throughout everyone’s day to day life. As it would happen, another kind of faith returns.
Try to do something nice every day. The smallest of things do matter. It may even matter more than you’ll ever know and one thing you’ll know for sure is how much better you feel especially if you had not done it at all.
My motto today and going forward…
Don’t think twice…BE NICE.
