Stop and listen

An impromptu quick ice cream run turned into more than I ever thought it would. After getting the ice cream I wanted to make two quick stops before returning home-nothing important, just quick errands. It was a short but sweet trip and a nice break from the craziness of life.

So after walking into a store and chatting with a sales clerk, who I only know by her name "Cheryl" on her name tag, and the fact that her cousins are two people I know and have worked with I quickly found what I was looking for and was ready to check out and leave. When Cheryl asked me "Can I tell you something?" I said yes without thinking, and I was a bit surprised and wondering what she was going to share. It wasn't like we were friends other than talking a couple of times over the past six months when I would stop in.

But Cheryl felt the need to share something personal and heartbreaking...her son, 26-years old was diagnosed with cancer on Monday and had started radiation on Saturday. She wasn't going to be able to see him until Tuesday because she had to work. She shared what her son had been going through health-wise and career-wise for the past month. As well as how hard he had worked to start his dream business. He had worked and been saving money since high school, attended college and gotten his masters degree as well. He was just starting on his dream business when his health put all that in the back ground. This news stopped me in my tracks and I put myself in Cheryl's shoes as a mother as well a mother of a 26-year old son too. Cheryl shared some details of what her son's health had been like for the past month and the hassles of health insurance he had been through just before his diagnosis. But in her eyes and voice I heard the heartbreak of this news and how proud she was of her son and how hard he had worked to get this far. She was scared, fearful and trying to come to terms with the news as well as be supportive to her son.

I knew nothing I could say would make things better, plus I didn't know what to say. So I just listened. Why Cheryl felt the need to share her story with me, I don't know. Maybe she just needed to get it out, say it out loud and share it with someone who would listen-which is what I did, nothing more. She shared a lot of information in a short time and I do believe there was a reason, other than ice cream, that I made that trip and stopped by that store at that time.

I'd like to think we've all been in those situations where we just dump what is going on in our life, what's really bugging us, on complete strangers, for whatever reason. Is it because just saying it out loud makes it real? Or maybe telling someone you don't know helps emotionally as well as physically?

But what Cheryl's sharing did for me was make me slow down, if not stop and literally thank God for what I have and take for granted every day. I'm not saying I don't appreciate what I have and the three kids I've been blessed with, but my life and week had been a pretty crazy and busy and things were a little tough with a migraine headache on top of everything else. So to get things straight...a fun ice cream trip which was suppose to be good break became a moment of being there for someone I didn't know. And a reminder for me that life is fragile, short and often over before we are ready to let go.

I'm sharing a poem I read many years ago when I lost my first child and bits and pieces of this run through my mind at various times, but it is something to keep in mind, especially the first line...

Positive thought of the day: Life is short. Live it!