Of all places!

I"m writing already because of couple of things that happened to me recently that I wanted to "put out there" in the universe. Yesterday, I had to take my teen out of school for his orthodontist appointment. It was a mid morning appt. I love the girls who work up at the desk (the others are great too, but they can escape my chatty mouth!). They are always coming up with really fun contests for the kids to enter. The last one, being that we live in North Carolina, was to be the one to guess which teams were going to be the last four College Basketball teams to play in the ACC tournament. My son apparently had guessed incorrectly. They shushed me and made me promise in their whispering voices not to say anything but the girl who won (like I can remember her name at MY age!) had not been called yet.. because... ta ta da da!! She was getting her braces off the next day and they were going to surprise her and tell her then! Well, I just thought that was precious. You know, usually, any given person can go into any given office and see lame , sad, sorry faces.. moping around, barely even looking your way, much less, giving you any attention whatsoever! Not here at Dr. Youngblade's office. Martha and Debbie are just the best. All the staff wear matching shirt's or sweater daily. They have so many from which to choose, that you hardly ever see them in the same matching tops twice! Furthermore, when Dr. Youngblade's mother passed away well over a year ago, with the sympathetic souls these women in this office have, wore black sweater sets for weeks. It was one of most compassionate, kind hearted and loving gestures you will assuredly EVER find in an office setting. His Mother painted all the landscape paintings in that office. Anyhow, one of the girls turned 50 and asked when my husband, her old schoolmate(this is how small our town is), was turning 50 as well... "not till August" I muttered.. thinking that mine was just a few months after that... bluh.. . This was Martha, a tall pretty blonde, who's as sweet as she is self-assured. I was noticing when I was up at the curved counter blabbing away, that there was another, what I thought, contest. I asked what these boxes were next to me. I saw a plastic bag in there that had unidentified stuff in it. Martha then explained to me that the church she attends volunteers at a local food bank. She volunteers, I think it was, twice a month. Her eyes showed me the empathy that she had when her boss's mother had passed.. she continued on with her explanation atop her slumping shoulders.. She was telling me that the food bank she's always worked is noticeably low. There are so many employees LOCALLY who have lost their jobs. She reminded me of all the bigger businesses that have let go of so many during this lousy time in our economy. She gave me the number of food products they had then compared to now.. it was definately hard to tell people who came for food that there was none, or not much from which to choose. SO.. the box next to me was for people to open their hearts and wallets and bring what they could in groceries to support this local food bank. I was taken with this.. that these wonderful women come up with so many good things in their little office to get people involved in their community, whether times are hard or easy.. they're always doing something to bring people closer together. To me, these are the TRUE Christians. People who LIVE their lives with constistantly kind hearts and grace. Not the ones, and you know who you are, who go to their place of worship and then go home only to talk horribly about your neigbbors and relatives. I so admire these women, and am reminded every time I go in there how lucky they are to have eachother and to get along so incredibly well (to this they admit they are always on the same page!) and how fortunate the Dr. is to be surrounded by such caring creatures. I told them I would be back to help fill their box.. it looked pretty lame so far. I had no idea when I would be back, but I did go to the store later that day and made it a point to buy some staples for some less fortunate than I. Even though my e-commerce site is not doing all that well, my husband has a job still and I have so much in my life, that it was an easy decision to go shopping for this cause. I happily and proudly gave 3 bags to that unassuming cardboard box that meant so much. And it's true, when you give, you get back.. and I will tell you about that in my next blog. But I just want to add that I will be sorry when my son gets his braces off.. because I won't be making regular visits to that office. I guess I'll make more brownies and cookies and take them to those girls like I used to when we first started going there. Then, I won't miss out on too much of their kindnesses. I saw "Hope Floats" the other night and I have always loved the line they use.. "My cup runneth over." and that's how I feel right at this moment. Stay healthy, honest and employed.. and give what you can when you can.

Susie