This morning I was drinking my coffee and going over my calendar for the week and kept being interrupted by my best girl Harley laying beside me snoring in the most rhythmic pattern you’ve ever heard, it was almost like Nate Dog & Warren G out regulating… she’s laying there taking up more than her fair share of space on a heated blanket wearing a sequined collar w/ a matching engraved tag dangling down from it in a bed that probably cost as much as mine.
Last night before she would even settle down for the evening she had to get a certain amount of treats that she’s become accustomed to and if she doesn’t get them she will either nudge me with her cold wet nose or better yet put her big paw on my shoulder and push me up as a reminder. She’s a celebrity most places she goes because everyone knows her by now. I can’t help but be reminded that when she entered this world she wasn’t loved or cherished. She was used to breed those frankendoodle dogs and immediately had her pups taken away. She was not only lacking in love, she was also broken.
When she came to me I was pretty broken too. She’s ridden with me through some dark times and we’ve been there for each other. Probably more than any other pet I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing in my lifetime. I love spoiling this crazy animal to the point of extravagance. There’s a joy that I get from it knowing that I’m the reason she has come to expect it. I grew up spoiled rotten and didn’t realize that I had taken it for granted until much later in life. My son… don’t even get me started on spoiled rotten, he is me x1000 in that respect. Even though I know that I’m not doing him any favors in life by spoiling him there’s still a joy I get from providing for him that I can’t explain.
This past weekend our pastor did a message on being the salt of the earth and representing ourselves in the world. For some reason I recollected the fact that my mom gave numerous young women in nursing school scholarships over the years as well as poured into many others lives through the years and did it for the most part completely under the radar. She is an inspiration to me.
Her kindness is absolutely off the charts, almost ridiculous at times, haha. One day I was at the farm w/ her and she couldn’t get around very good because she had just had hip surgery but we heard the garbage truck coming down the road. She immediately jumped to attention and directed me to hurry up and grab two cokes out of the refrigerator and some cookies she had already bagged up by the door and head down to the road to catch the garbage guys… I didn’t question, even at 53 years old, I don’t ask a lot of questions when mom tells me to do something. I grabbed the cokes and the snacks and ran to the end of the driveway and met the guys as they were loading her half ton trash dumpster into their truck and handed them both the drink and cookies. They turned the truck off and stood there in the street talking w/ me for the next 15 or 20 minutes telling me about how mom always meets them down at the street w/ drinks and snacks when they run our route. They asked how her rehabilitation was going and knew all about her hip problems, even said they had been praying for her… I had no idea this was going on. It was mind-blowing.
Fast forward a few weeks, I was at the farm and mom asked me to drop by the post office to pick her up a book of stamps. She also gave me two pieces of this extravagant caramel candy that is made in Texas somewhere that is simply amazing and told me to give it to the girl at the post office. I stuck it in my pocket and went to the window at the post office down there and got the roll of stamps. As I was walking out i remembered the piece of candy I had in my pocket, I turned back around and pulled the candy out and as soon as the girl noticed the candy her face lit up and she was overjoyed. It wasn’t the candy that brought her joy, even though it is that good. It was mom’s kindness and consistency that brough her joy.
I know this might be just my weird take on things but I see myself needing to do a much better job of leaving people and situations much better than I might find them. I used to be a lot better at this. If you know me you know that I have always preferred to be that anonymous giver in the background because the word stresses that we shouldn’t do things for the praise, instead for the rewards in heaven. I will add that the rewards here on earth, specifically in our hearts, can be pretty rewarding too. I know that a lot of us have made declarations for the new year w/ goals we plan to attain, etc., well this is one of mine that’s going to rank somewhere near the top. I challenge each of you that reads this to look outward instead of inward this new year, maybe it’s not ourselves that we need to focus on so much as it is others we encounter… I’m not saying to neglect our personal health or growth, just broaden our scope of energy…
I know that times are crazy right now and everyone is conservatively hanging onto what we have because we don’t know what tomorrow brings, but so many of us have been blessed to have the resources to do a lot more than we do. At the end of the day you can’t take a single ounce of silver or gold with you, heck it wouldn’t matter if you could… the streets where I’m going are going to be paved in gold anyway.
Just glancing back over at my spoiled rotten dog, one of God’s creatures, I’m going to my office to get to work for the week but she will lay right here as long as she wants… I’m feeling the joy that comes from knowing it’s because of my actions she can live this life a little better now than when she came into this world.
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