Gratitude

A lot of stuff is happening “behind the scenes” in my life, and this may never actually be a good place to get into these stories. Nevertheless, I’ve been feeling quite overwhelmed and until some of these issues are a little more settled, I don’t think that there’s much of a chance of being able to sit back and recuperate a little.

In any case, I started mowing the grass yesterday, a task that has been entirely mine pretty much all of this year. I don’t mind it per se, it gets me out and moving, but it takes awhile to do. The lot is about 1/3 of an acre, and the house sits on part of it, and there is some parts that are landscaped, but with the push mower, it usually takes me an hour to do the front and an hour to do the back.

I was about ten minutes into mowing the front when I nearly jumped out of my skin as I felt somebody place a hand on my shoulder. It was our neighbor, a man with grown kids, who has occasionally mowed our grass knowing that it’s tough with the little kids. He said to me, “Put that away, I’ll mow the grass. You’ve already got too much to do.” And with that, he was going over to get his riding mower.

I started crying. I don’t know how to express my gratitude. I worked on the patio and cleaning the garage – it was a blessing.

Once he was done with the riding mower, he came over with his push mower to get the bits and pieces that are really not capable of being mowed with the riding mower. He’s never done that before, and it just floored me. I am speechless, grateful for his kindness from the bottom of my heart.

(Seriously, the whole family is great; I’ve had the chance to get to know the daughter and son-in-law over the summer and it’s been a godsend.)

So I just wanted to make a quick post here about it, just as a reminder to give thanks in all circumstances, and that this is the type of action that binds us together as human. Thank you, thank you, thank you.