Hello #2...Pop up greeting

You never know who you’ll run into while you’re on your way through life.  I find this to be especially true when you’re a mother.  As a mom you have to make yourself available to walk through situations that come up instantly.  They seem to appear out of thin air.  Sometimes I’m like really!  You have to go to the bathroom now!  We’re at the very back of Super Walmart.  Or someone has dropped food all over their nice new clothes just before we’re about to leave for church.  Or, lately it seems as if I am the only one whose children (at least two at a time) seem to melt down in public.  We have five.  The latter was true on more than one occasion while dropping off my four year old to preschool.  She was melting down and so was my two year old.  This woman, petite with a cool short haircut and snappy looking clothes talked to both my girls and they stopped crying on the spot.  She smiled at me genuinely and moved on about her day.  In that moment I was so grateful because I had tried everything and came up short.  This woman had no idea of what it took to even get in the car let alone get to school.  She had no idea of the daily battle with my 4 year old to get dressed and wear clothes that matched.  No idea about how I had only gotten between 3-5 hours of sleep because someone was up with a bad dream, ill, or had to go to the bathroom.  Our two year old is freshly potty trained.  She seems to bypass the bathroom which is right next to her room; politely knock on our door and do the potty dance.   Anyway, the point is, it was this woman’s kindness that greeted me.  It was the hello I needed to breathe deep and say to myself, “we’re almost to the classroom”.  I think these are the hellos we need to be to our neighbors.  You never know what it took for a person to get where they are when they pass you by on the street or when they are standing in right front of you at the checkout.  I recently had the chance to share with this wonderful woman how her kind gesture got me to where I was going.  I still don’t know her name.

 

1/6/2015 UPDATE: Her name is Christine...Yay!  (Originally posted 1/2/2015)