Hello all. I don’t really have anything to share this week earth-shaking, but I thought I’d tell you about my week and a couple of my coworkers. I think we get so caught up in the waking nightmare that we see on the news each day that we forget to look at the life that just keeps on going on.
First, we have young Anthony. Anthony (Never “Tony”!) came to us recently out of prison. He had nothing but a string of disappointments and a fervent hope to somehow restart his life. He was so proud of each of his accomplishments that I was grinning like his daddy all proud for him! Of course, the first thing he got himself was a baby.
I shook my head wondering how he could manage to dig his hole deeper, but he loves that baby so much. In time, he bought a car that wasn’t worth the cost of the license plate, but he was walking with a pushed out chest – until it quite literally fell apart on him. But he bought a truck, and he looked upon life like a mountain climber, grinning at each up-hill stride – until his grandfather died this week and this grown man-child cried in my arms.
Then we have Zack. Zack had gotten himself mixed in with someone I’d wished he hadn’t. Despite being a young 18-year old, I couldn’t tell him what to do. He’d need to learn these lessons like we all do, one heart-ache at a time, and that has come true for him.
He finally realized that particular someone that he put so much faith in and followed around like a puppy was not the person he made people believe him to be: he wasn’t particularly cool, wasn’t hip, wasn’t wise, – just mostly a middle-aged negative minded overgrown juvenile delinquent – and Zack finally saw who was behind the image. Now he eats his lunch alone and works his machine with his head down. I can see he’s lonely, so I check in on him a couple times a day, sad that he’s feeling that pain but proud that he’s realized the truth.
Too many times I’ve focused on those things that went wrong, losing myself in criticism and frustration. I’d miss these little moments in some misguided hope that I could bring perfection to the shift, to the business, and somehow it would all be right in the end.
But life is messy and so much of that mess is my own. People fail, frustratingly so, but they also succeed. I wish I was wise enough to focus solely on those good moments and walk through the dark valleys with that sunshine in my eyes. Those two young men had their own share of mistakes this week, one of them quite costly, but I had an opportunity today to see a peek behind the curtains and the life not always for public consumption and it reminded me that there is a whole lot to life.
Scottie's Playtime 