A few days ago, my husband and I went out to do some errands. We were struck anew with the rudeness of the other drivers on the road. People pushed their way in front of the line of cars waiting to get on the freeway. Drivers changed lanes without looking, just to get a few feet ahead in traffic. Other people parked themselves in the left lane while driving ten miles an hour below the speed limit (I even saw one man turn his mirror to the side so he wouldn’t have to acknowledge the line of cars piling up behind him).
We found ourselves getting more and more frustrated and our conversation veered into negative areas as well. We discussed how high the taxes on our little home in the country had become and how the money seemed to be spent on things we felt were frivolous instead of necessary.
We discussed politics and the futility of trying to find a candidate worth voting for. We talked about the state of our government in general and how this country doesn’t seem to represent our values and beliefs anymore.
We were caught up in a snowball of negativity and it was gaining in size and momentum as it raced down the hill.
In an attempt to cheer ourselves up, we pulled into a pretty little shopping center to grab some lunch before we went home.
I took two steps out of the car when I stepped on an uneven piece of sidewalk and twisted my ankle. I felt myself falling in slow motion. I tried to catch myself but I fell all the way down onto my face. I hit the pavement so hard that the wind was knocked out of me.
I laid on the cement gasping for air and clutching my chest and thinking, “Well, isn’t this just the icing on this negative day?”
But, then everything changed.
People began coming from every direction. A man ran across the street from his office and offered me water. A mother stopped and held my hand (my sweet husband was holding my other hand). Her little son showed me the new puppy “Jesus had brought him for being a good boy”. A young man in sunglasses and dreadlocks came up and gave me a big hug. And, someone must have taken the time to call an aid car because it showed up after I had shakily made my way to a nearby restaurant.
As I sat bleeding in a cozy booth and watching the aid car circling the block apparently looking for the old woman who had fallen on the sidewalk, I couldn’t help but smile. This world may seem like a negative place at times, but when it really matters people come out of the woodwork to help each other. I witnessed it firsthand and it was a beautiful reminder that we aren’t as alone as we sometimes feel we are.
