One of my worst traits is that I often think the worst of people and jump to the worst conclusions about situations before I even give people or things a chance to explain themselves. And sometimes...due to this pessimistic nature of mine... I do, say, or think things that ultimately prove that I am nothing more than a complete ASS. This morning was one of those moments.
My morning started off great. I woke up at my normal time, sat in my normal chair, drinking my normal cup of cream only coffee...when all of a sudden I was called out of my nice normal routine by my father who needed help with his car. You see, my father and I park in the same driveway and for some reason, his car battery decided to die sometime between the time when we switched the placement of our cars last night and when he went to leave this morning. And to be honest, my dad was really just trying to be considerate of me by asking me to help him move his car into the road so that I wouldn't have any trouble getting out of the driveway when it was time for me to leave for work...but at the moment I didn't see it that way.
So here I was in my pajamas and messy hair, outside in the freezing rain sitting in my father's car turning the wheel for him, while he pushed the car out into the road and then over to the curve...all the while grumpy as could be. Then, to make matters worse, once my father pushed the car out of the driveway, it rolled to a stop right in the middle of the road and we couldn't get it to budge again. My father kept yelling at me to "Turn the Wheel", while I kept yelling back "I am! You need to push!", but no mater how much shade we threw at each other the car just sat there blocking the entire road.
About this time, I started thinking how making my 75-year-old father push a car by himself with me in it wasn't all that fair, especially since he's been feeling pretty sick the past few days, and so I decided we should switch places so he could rest. So, with my grumpy attitude, I jumped out of the car while my father jumped in and I started pushing. And I pushed and I pushed and I pushed, only to have the car move a grand total of one inch before stopping again!
At this point, I was tired, and wet, and annoyed that my nice relaxing morning routine was being ruined, when one of our neighbors pulled out of their driveway and started driving right towards us. I hate to admit that I immediately screamed out loud "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!", thinking "hello, you can see me struggling to push this car from your driveway. Why would you drive your car right towards me knowing I'm not going to be able to move it fast enough for you to get by! What is wrong with you?!".
Of course, the question should have been, what is wrong with me because my neighbor wasn't driving towards me to try and pass by and carry on his way. No, he was driving over towards us so that he could help me push the car. My neighbour...who I basically just told off without even knowing his intention... got out of his car and with one quick push moved the car to the side of the road as joyful as could be. Then he stopped to see if we needed any more help before carrying on with his day!
It was in that moment I realised just how much of an ASS I was. Here I assumed the worst of this guy, yet here he went out of his way to help us out...and he did it all with a smile on his face! I immediately felt remorse and like I owed this man something. He had reminded me that not all people are bad and that the world still can be a kind place...and now it is my duty to pass that on. So the next time I find myself in a situation where I can help some other grumpy little damsel in distress, I'm gonna think of this man and do my best to be the kind of neighbor he was today! And maybe this little act of kindness will get passed on again, and together it will help make this world a better place.
No comments:
Post a Comment