Thoughts.................

Today, as I was out trying to gather pink and brown items for Lila's birthday party, I saw a few things that really made me think. I might have already been a bit sad, because I miss my family like crazy, but that's a post for another day. The first thing I saw was a man and two kids in a pickup, I'm assuming it was a dad and his kids. In the back of the pickup was a huge advertisement for a furniture store going out of business. It looked like they had been there all day. They were in good spirits, from what I heard, singing and playing "I spy". It still made me sad. I don't feel like it was the guy's choice to have his kids in a pickup all day but I'm guessing he doesn't have a lot of options. I'm thinking he needs the money.

Next stop- Michael's bathroom. Apparently I had WAAAYYY too much water to drink on the way there. Unfortunately for me, there was a stroller in front of both stalls. Not good. A lady started talking to me from inside one of the stalls. "Sorry about my stroller, honey, I'll move it in a minute. It's big, huh? Sure is. I swore I'd never have a double stroller but 3 months after I had my second child I got a surprise. Pregnant again. So now I have a 5 year old, a 3 year old and a 1 1/2 year old. Crazy, huh?" I'm thinking, Yeah, crazy. And I have to pee in a big way. I said, "Uh-huh". She said, "Sorry I'm talking your ear off and I can't even see you." She comes out of the bathroom stall with a toddler in her arms. "Oh, hi! Here, let me move my stroller. Sorry. We can't afford another stroller so even when I'm only out with one of the younger kids I have to bring this one. It's so big and bulky, ya know?" I walk into a stall, she takes a breath then keeps talking. "We had to come to Michael's today because my daughter started Kindergarten and she wanted a few things to decorate her folder for school. She's tall, huh? Way taller than all of the other kids in her class. She missed the kindergarten cut-off date last year by 23 days. She had to go to another year of preschool. Can you believe that? " She said something else after that but I had to flush the toilet. She kept talking. I won't go on and on about all that she told me about herself and her family, but obviously the girl needed to talk. She reminded me of myself when I first moved to Virginia. I was so lonely that I would go to the grocery store every single day just to have human contact outside of my husband and son. I felt for her.

Checking out at Michael's the person waiting on me was a young man about Justin's age. He either couldn't move the right side of his body or had difficulty doing so. The woman in front of me either didn't notice, didn't care or didn't know how to handle the situation. The guy was having a hard time separating the bags from each other. He finally got one separated but couldn't get it open. He tried for a couple of seconds, then ended up handing it to the woman so she could open it herself. She said, "Oh, um, thanks," and helped him put her purchases into the bag. It was my turn then and when he was finished ringing everything up I opened a bag, looked him in the eye and said, "I got you". He said a very sincere "thanks" and smiled at me. I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do but it turned out okay.

This post reminds me of a quote by Drew Barrymore. "I cry a lot. I'll cry because I see a person walking down the street looking lonely."

I don't cry a lot, but lately I am acutely aware of hurting people. They are everywhere.

Hugs~

Linda