You can never ever be too old to learn something about yourself, at least I can't be. I usually do some early morning grocery shopping because it is always nice having the store to myself pretty much and it gets my home supply stocking chore done early. Anyway, I am walking back to my truck with my groceries and I pass a younger man who is wheeling a cart with discarded recyclables. He asks me if I have any spare change so that he can eventually get to the light rail and go home. Now I am one who is always trying to do good for others and when asked to I surmise the situation and then react. This fellow looked genuine to me and I said to him that I had fifteen cents change I just got from the cashier in my pocket. He said great if I could spare it. I said how about a dollar instead?
He didn't even hesitate and said thank you. So I took out my wallet and gave him a five dollar bill. He looked at it and then said can I pray for you? I said no thanks as it was already raining hard in the middle of the parking lot. We went on our way and I thought about what he said on the drive home. I am not religious or a belief system person but I wanted to say something about that to him but didn't have the words right then. Plus I didn't want to have a debate about whether a god exists or not in a rainstorm. But thinking about what my response should have been I realized that I was living my prayer. I do good things for people who otherwise wouldn't have a good moment in that time frame.
My acts of kindness and help are my prayer and if I do have a belief system it is that I want to do no harm while doing as much good as I can. I am not dissing those who fervently believe that thoughts and prayers are important, I just believe and know that actions, not words are the better form for it. So as I got home I decided that this posting would be about this little event in the rain pelting grocery store parking lot and how it affected me as the giver of something to someone who had less than me. Because it tells me that although I am not bound to any belief system my life is ruled by some of the values that are shared with beliefs. The goodness within me doesn't have to be from a god, it can be from where I know it emanates, from the innocence I was born with and still have within me.
He didn't even hesitate and said thank you. So I took out my wallet and gave him a five dollar bill. He looked at it and then said can I pray for you? I said no thanks as it was already raining hard in the middle of the parking lot. We went on our way and I thought about what he said on the drive home. I am not religious or a belief system person but I wanted to say something about that to him but didn't have the words right then. Plus I didn't want to have a debate about whether a god exists or not in a rainstorm. But thinking about what my response should have been I realized that I was living my prayer. I do good things for people who otherwise wouldn't have a good moment in that time frame.
My acts of kindness and help are my prayer and if I do have a belief system it is that I want to do no harm while doing as much good as I can. I am not dissing those who fervently believe that thoughts and prayers are important, I just believe and know that actions, not words are the better form for it. So as I got home I decided that this posting would be about this little event in the rain pelting grocery store parking lot and how it affected me as the giver of something to someone who had less than me. Because it tells me that although I am not bound to any belief system my life is ruled by some of the values that are shared with beliefs. The goodness within me doesn't have to be from a god, it can be from where I know it emanates, from the innocence I was born with and still have within me.
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