Participating

This post is not about addiction. I'm not sure if it is about learning a lesson, either.  It's something that happened that made me smile at life and the good, unseen, unpredictable moments we can be a part of if we choose to participate.  I feel good about what happened.  I know you're supposed to do your good works quietly and in secret.  Normally, I do that.  But this was just so simple and made me (and my daughter as well) feel so happy (satisfied?) that I just want to share the experience.

My daughter is going to work on sobriety, again.  I am grateful for that spark inside her that is not giving up.  I believe that is the Holy Spirit and I'm thanking her daily.  That is the first good thing.

The second good thing is that Father's Day was wonderful.  Everyone was here.  My daughter, my son, his girlfriend, my brother and my dad were all here. My family. We ate lasagna and salad (my dad's favorite meal besides pizza) and had brownies and butter pecan ice cream (my dad's favorite) for dessert.  Then we spent the whole afternoon and evening visiting. No stress. No arguing. A bubble of happiness floated down and encased this house and everything was perfect.

Third (and the good something that happened) I was going to take my brother to the airport Monday afternoon.  So, I went earlier that morning to run some errands and decided to stop and pick up some groceries.  I was going to pack him a lunch.  Normally, I just pack him a sandwich and some fruit.  But this time, I thought I'd get him something to drink, too, so I bought two individual fruit fusion drinks.  Fast forward to Monday afternoon, and my daughter and I pick my brother up at my dad's house and off to the airport.  As he's leaving the car and getting his luggage, I remind him about the lunch and he says that he's not going to take the drinks. "Okay," I reply.  We say our good-byes and my daughter and I drive away.  Because it was my first day of summer break (yeah) and because life was going good, my daughter and I went to dinner. It was nice.  We each got a basket of seafood. Yum!  It was probably the messiest dinner I've ever eaten but it was so buttery, lobstery good that it was worth it (that happy bubble was still with us from Sunday). 

Where I live there is always construction going on, on the highways.  Roads that you swear they just finished repairing a year ago, are once again, littered with orange cones and blinking lights.  Needless to say that traffic is never 'light'.  If you don't know 'the long, more scenic way' to anywhere, be prepared to sit in traffic.  So, we were sitting in traffic.  There are usually several homeless people with signs standing along the highway (traffic moves so slowly that it's as safe as being on the sidewalk).  We were coming up to a man with a sign that said, "Homeless...anything will help."  So, I looked down at the two juice bottles that my brother refused.  I looked at my daughter.  "Give those to him."  "Really?"  "Yeah.  Give those to him.  His sign says anything will help."  So, as we slowly inched closer, my daughter rolled down her window and as we came up to him, she reached out with the juice bottles and asked him if he was thirsty.  He smiled and took the bottles, while saying "Thank you" and "God bless you."  She closed the window, again, looked over at me and smiled.

The rush of good feeling that you get when you participate in life like that, make a connection like that, is always so filling to the spirit.

Okay, so here's the lesson or whatever you want to call it that I thought about.  That morning, when I was buying the juice, I was intending it for my brother.  But by a collection of circumstances, that juice was intended for someone else.  All I did was participate in a forward motion.  Driving past, we could have done nothing, but we didn't.  We completed the connection by making the effort.  Everything that day was moving forward. Reaching for the juice on the shelf. Paying for the juice. Giving it to my brother. Him giving it back  and then finally, completing the circle so to speak, make the decision, opening the window and giving the juice to that man. 

It reminded me of a light-bulb moment concerning a sermon I listened to once.  Asking God into your life doesn't mean that you just sit there and God will start working. You have to participate.  You can want to watch television, but if you don't commit to  the movement of clicking that button, the TV will never come on.  A connection with God, I think is the same way.  With anything, for that matter.  If you want that connection, that progress, that spiritual healing, you have to commit to being a participant not a by-stander.