"Do small things with great love"

As I write this, it is 6:30 am, the start of another new day! The sky is becoming lighter here....and although we have over TWO feet of snow on the ground, the sun will shine. I have so much to be grateful for. Yesterday, my wonderful husband took me out for  a belated Valentine's Day dinner. I had not even made an issue out of that holiday this year. Money is tight, his work schedule wouldn't allow him the time to prepare for it and the snowstorms have really been kicking our butts lately! To me, the love that he shows on a daily basis was enough...yet his invitation to go out so touched me. We braved icy roads to get to his favorite eatery...and I fell in love with him all over again!

This leads me to talk about how, when one needs to do the "right thing," one can either just do it, or grumble and kick their feet about it. Case in point: we had a huge snowstorm that left about a foot of snow all over. I had been trying to keep up with it, going out to clear the sidewalks and the cars off, about once an hour or so, but Mother Nature was winning. The next day, with winds howling at blizzard speed, I was worrying about clearing the now compacted snow before it turned into ice, worried about how the husband was going to get home from work on icy roads, worried about when the snowplow would be coming through my townhome complex, thus trying to keep the cars cleared off...on and on it went. Ugh! I became more tired, more grumpy--and to top it off, I now had neighbors, who I know have health issues of their own, also contacting me. One neighbor with a bad back did not seek help, but I knew he was in pain as he slowly hefted the snow shovel up with every load. I eventually helped him out after I shoveled my own walk. Then another neighbor, who had foot surgery, asked if I could clear her car out. huge sigh...so I warmed up a bit and went after it. Not long after, yet another neighbor did not ask so much as ordered me to clear her minivan and move it so that the plow could make it through. She also had had back surgery and by now, I was exhausted from all of the shoveling, the clearing, the ice scraping...I was more than annoyed. I was near to tears! I grumbled...oh, Lord, how I grumbled!! I guess you could say that I piss and moaned about it! I lay on the couch, trying to warm up numb toes and fingers, trying to quiet my heartbeat and thus, I grumbled to God about it.

"How DARE these neighbors ask ME to do every little thing! Ask? Heck, they demand, they INSIST! Don't they know that I am not Superwoman, I also have my own health issues, that what I do, I do with energy that isn't there? How dare they....??" and on I went. Oh I gave it all to God. I stomped my foot, I took it out on the dog....I was a sight!

Then, in the quiet, I heard a Voice say, "You still have the capacity to actually do something, these people do not. How would YOU feel if it were YOU...helpless and worried...?"

Well, that did it...put me in a place of empathy and I melt into a puddle.
Huge sigh.

I bundled myself up once again, opened the door to an onslaught of wind, and headed back out.

As luck would have it, our complex has a Bobcat tractor, whose operator was just swinging by and was clearing up behind one neighbor's car...the one that I was supposed to shovel out. Together, we worked to get it done in under two minutes.. Then he drove to where my other neighbor had her minivan and within a few minutes, had her dug out also. He then drove off. As I shoveled her sidewalk, I asked myself, "how did he know to go to both places where I was to clean up?

How indeed! The timing wasn't his, it wasn't mine.

It was God's timing!

I felt so bad for my grumbles. I felt a small sense of accomplishment that it was now done. I cleared up the sidewalk, trudged home, and gave thanks for the ability to have served when it was needed, as well as asked for forgiveness for having complained about it.

The sun is just now peeking up over the horizon. It looks to be a grand day! Today...when you feel like complaining, when you get that "why do I have to DO all of this?" feeling...think instead, to one who may be asking God..."WHO CAN DO ALL OF THIS FOR ME?"
YOU ARE AN INSTRUMENT OF PEACE.
Don't ever forget that!