Life weighed heavy on me: the loss of employment and relationships and financial difficulties that go with it; a son’s medical issues and the looming threat of the death of his well-fought-for dream; aging parents with health problems. And within weeks, I would live in an empty nest for the first time in more than two decades. The best of life, it seemed, was behind me.
As I walked to my car feeling sorry for myself, I noticed an older woman shuffling slowly toward me. She was leaning heavily on her shopping cart like a walker. At the rate she moved, it would be at least a 10-minute trek just to enter the store. I should be grateful, I thought.
As I loaded my purchases into the car, I felt a persistent urge to offer her one of the small pink mums I shouldn’t have bought.
“Would you like some flowers?,” I asked awkwardly.
“I drive a truck; I don’t have any place to keep them,” she said matter-of-factly. “But thank you.”
I fought back the familiar feeling of failure. Clearly, the persistent urge to reach out to her hadn’t been from the Holy Spirit. Or was it? The prompting, it turns out, was not about what I had to offer her, but what she had to offer me.
“Have a blessed day,” she said, as though it were secret code for I’m a believer, too.
“You, too,” I replied. We’re family.
“I will,” she insisted, “Every day is blessed.”
There was a pause where I began to consider her attitude. How does she do it? As if answering my thought, she added, “Some days are just more blessed than others.”
Walmart parking lot wisdom.
The priceless, eternal wealth of the Saints offered freely in the superstore’s parking lot…who knew? The sermon on the plain, the sermon on the mount. It comes to us from the elderly, the infirm, and the poor. Surrounded by suffering, they are blessed. Happy. Low in the valley or high on the mountain, independent of circumstances, blessings abound.
This elderly, infirm, truck-driving woman reminded me that God is good. All the time. God created good. “All things work for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28). What is good is the only thing that’s real; all else will pass. Perhaps St. Teresa of Avila said it best: “In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.”
It’s okay to acknowledge the bad things that happen, but we should resist the temptation to dwell on them. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8). This is where we are called to dwell: In the good. We must train our minds like athletes for the big game.
Consider this: Every. Day. Is. Blessed. Some days are just more blessed than others.
Homework:
What weighs heavily on you, readers? It’s okay to acknowledge it, just don’t live there. Name the distractions and discouragements and offer them to God, asking him to do what he does best. He can transform them, making them work for our good. Amen and alleluia.
Now, go! Collect your blessings!
If I could ask God for any gift, as an educator this is an easy one, I would ask for wisdom. I would like to say it would be patience, but my first inclination would be like that of King Solomon. Wisdom would make my life complete. However, my quest for knowledge and wisdom comes right back to my original challenge, because St. Augustine says “Patience is the companion of wisdom.” So, if love is patient, and wisdom accompanies patience, with wisdom, also comes love. So many virtues that all come down this: Love. And as Catholics, and as Christians, we know God is love. All these confusing connections tell me one thing: I must seek God, because it is only through Him that I receive wisdom, love, and, back to my original challenge patience.
