Round up is with Ramona at Pleasures from the Page.
It really wasn’t a bad day, but not such a good one either. I had a lingering cold and was scheduled for my yearly mammogram. One of those necessary uncomfortable things we women are subjected to, but the tech was pretty upset that I had come in with a cold. She ran out of the room for a mask and continually said, “I hope I don’t get sick. We have a lot of patients who come through here. I don’t have time to be sick.”
I felt awkward anyway considering I was exposing myself to boob smashing, but I also tried not to cough or sneeze. And then there was the guilt. Maybe I should’ve rescheduled.
Following this embarrassing encounter, I drove through a coffee shop treating myself to a flavored cold brew. When I got up to the window to pay, the clerk said that my coffee had been covered. The lady in the car ahead of me paid for me. What a kind gift! I have thought of doing this on occasion, but not often enough. This woman has no idea how her gesture turned a bad day into a good day, a feeling of guilt to one of gratitude. Then again, maybe she does know, and that’s why she did it.
This stranger lives in gratitude and spreads love with kind gestures. And I’ve never met her. Sam, at the window, said she comes every day. I asked him to thank her the next time he sees her. But did she do it to be thanked? I don’t think so.
Living in gratitude means noticing the good, sloughing off the bad, and taking each moment as a gift.
Photo by Robyn Hood Black
Reflections on the Teche 