In my live series on my Facebook page and in my Facebook
group, I have shared about three things that keep my emotional health
stable. I call it my trifecta of
emotional wellness. The three legs of
the trifecta are journaling, prayer, and expressing gratitude.
I began keeping a gratitude practice around 2005. And something I noticed about practicing
gratitude was that as you showed the Source of All That Is Infinite in the
Universe (however you choose to refer to said source; I prefer God, but respect
all other names) what you were grate*full for, that source would give you more
reasons to be grate*full.
I had gotten out of practice with my gratitudes. I couldn't find a good way to express them
that felt right to me. I had tried
writing them down in a notebook. I
joined a Facebook group called The Collecting Gratitude Collective. I tried keeping them in my journal. Nothing was working.
I decided this past week that I needed to start practicing
what I preached and I got really intentional about it, and, when I went to bed
on Thursday, I actively set my mind on going into The Collecting Gratitude
Collective and posting five things I was grate*full for.
On Saturday, my kids had been invited to a birthday
celebration for my youngest daughter's best friend. It was at Eldridge Park, which has a midway
in the summertime with a few rides. One
of the rides is a fast-moving carousel.
I've never been on a carousel like it.
It's one of my favorite things about living in Elmira.
Alas, I didn't get to go.
We'd had laundry building up for a few weeks (IKR?) and so I dropped my
husband and the kids off at the park and, after procrastinating as long as
possible by getting gas and stopping at Wegman's to get lunch, I headed to the
laundromat.
I had NINE loads of laundry, ah ah ah. By the time I got to the laundromat and got
every stitch washing, it was time to go pick my husband and the kids up from
the park. So I picked them up and took
them home, and then I went back to the laundromat.
It was then that I met Miss Roxanne.
At first, it was just a cursory exchange of pleasantries and
some polite conversation. I got my nine
loads of laundry all into dryers and got them going. As I loaded the last couple of loads into the
dryer, the first loads started to be dry, so I started to pull them out and
fold them. I was at the laundromat
without the kids, so I was painstakingly taking my time to fold each thing
neatly, as opposed to hurriedly shoving clothes into bags like I do when I have
the kids with me. Usually, by the time
things are dry, they have had it up to their eyeballs with the laundromat and
just want to go home.
As I folded the first load, the second, third, and fourth
load finished drying. I just patiently
worked on my folding, and then an amazing thing happened.
Miss Roxanne, while waiting for her stuff to wash, started
to pull my stuff out and fold it alongside me. She paused long enough to
transfer her things from washer to dryer, and then jumped right back in. All told, she probably folded about half my
laundry, and then she even helped me bag it up and load it into my car! And by helping me load it into my car, I mean
doing the lion's share of the work!
Of my seven bags of
laundry, I only had to load two...she did the rest!
Without Miss Roxanne's help, I probably would have been at
that laundromat until it closed. As it
was, by the time I started folding, it was almost 6 PM. This was not your ordinary run of the mill
random act of kindness. This was a HUGE
random act of kindness. I firmly believe
that this was the result of being intentional and active my gratitude
practice. I list five things I'm
grate*full for every day. This was worth
all five gratitudes and then some!
First of all, I probably would have closed the laundromat,
still being there folding.
Secondly, everyone's clothes were sorted into their own bag,
with separate bags for the towels and blankets.
This makes it so much easier to put the clothes away!
Third, it turned out that she was washing nap mats for her
sister's daycare, and it turned out to be the same daycare where my daughter's
best friend goes. So we had a really
nice conversation about how cute and sweet my daughter's best friend is and how
much fun she and my daughter had together at Head Start. (It was actually the same little girl whose
birthday my family had been celebrating at Eldridge Park.)
Then, today, I cut a turn short in a parking lot and ran my
car up on a curb, popping the right rear tire.
Thank God, no one was hurt. Thank
God, we were at Barnes and Noble, and Pick-a-Part was less than a mile
away. Thank God, they had a tire that
fit my car and cut me a deal that I could afford. Thank God for the kind soul who stopped to
help us when we couldn't use my old rusty jack to lift the car high enough and
offered us his floor jack. Then he
mounted the new tire for us!
I almost didn't do my gratitudes last night, promising
myself I'd do them in the morning. I am
so grate*full I made myself do them before I fell asleep! You'd better believe that tonight, I'll do
them first thing!
By the way, that kind soul who helped us with his floor jack
turned out to be a cousin by marriage of someone I used to work with. To quote SARK, "We are all so indelibly
connected to one another."
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