There is nothing like celebrating a birthday to remind us just how fast time flies. If you’re sitting around waiting to turn sixteen or twenty one you might not agree, but the older you are the faster time seems to move. I will never forget being at a wedding once when the groom’s grandmother, who was in her late eighties at the time, asked me how old I was. “I’m thirty four” I told her with my chest poked out just a little, proud to be a very grown man. Well this little lady that probably wasn’t five feet tall laying down with her toes pointed out said “You think time is moving fast now, don’t you. Wait until you get my age; I eat breakfast every fifteen minutes”. This was many years ago, but I can still remember it like it was yesterday. At the time I really didn’t see how things could move any faster, but throw in kids, houses, jobs and birthdays and the next thing you know co-workers are saying yes sir calling you Mr. Ande.
When I was younger I could sit down and compile a list of things I wanted without even having to think. It’s harder to do this now, and often when I have free time I can’t even think of something I want to do much less buy. It’s not that I have gotten everything I ever wanted, I simply don’t want as much. It took years to understand that a good meal and a movie with my family is as exciting as buying a new truck or house on the lake. I know that I had to try these other things to understand the concept, but I’m still happy that I learned this lesson….at any age. With the economy in shambles, some are learning this the hard way.
The lesson is humility and I met a lady this week that, for me, put it all in perspective. I see low income families every day in my job, and yes, more than a few are milking the system for whatever they can get. I don’t know the situations of any of the clients I meet unless they offer them up, and to say that few do is an understatement. Most critique the free work done on their home like an heiress building a pool house, but it IS their home and I try to be respectful. Then I meet a client like this.
The first time I see her she is standing on her small concrete porch with her arms wrapped around my agency escort. “Come on in” she almost screams as she grabs my hand and pulls me inside the small home. “Ya’ll are some of my favorite people on earth right now!” Wow! I get very few this excited I think as I head inside; this is going to be a good day.
As I walk to the kitchen to put my files down I notice that a small artificial Christmas tree and a few other modest decorations are about the only furnishings in the living room. I wonder if she has just moved in, but I don’t get a chance to ask her any of my normal questions as she is talking nonstop about her new low power bill and cozy home. I hear kids laughing in a back bedroom and remember that I had planned to take this week before Thanksgiving off myself, but ended up having to work around the agency’s busy holiday schedule. I’ll make this one quick, I think as I take a few pictures and begin to wrap up my visit.
“Is there anything you want to ask me?’ I ask her as I close my files and look toward the door. “Did everything turn out as you hoped?” She smiled at me and sat down at the kitchen table where her two kids were now eating breakfast. She didn’t say anything for a few minutes, but when I reached out to shake her hand she very softly said “I’m just glad to be here. I’m 53 years old and up until three years ago I had been on the same job for eighteen years. I think the only thing my husband liked about me was my six figure income and now I have neither. I went through my savings and discovered that the only thing worse than living in a trailer park was living in a homeless shelter. Before this I thought I knew what humble meant. Things can change very fast.”
As I drove back home I thought about her. I admit the man in me wondered how, if you truly made six figures, you could now be broke, but I couldn’t stay on that thought long. All I could think of was how grateful she seemed. She was smiling at me, cooking breakfast for her kids before she went to work later at Home Depot; she was happy. She was enjoying the moment she was in; the moment before things changed again. Happy Thanksgiving.
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