A new publication on Substack

I want this to be the thing that utilizes my work skills and my gifts. I hate to call them talents because that sounds egotistical. But I have been gifted with a lot in life and I wish to share some of what I’ve learned in hopes that it might help at least a few of you. The title of this new publication (when I can figure out how to properly publish it separately from my narrative), is called “It’s What I Do!”

Where do I start? I think I will draw from something that happened just a few days ago.

It was a Friday night, my son and I home alone, as he is entering the last year of his college study. As is often a tradition I placed an online order for pizza delivery. It was a dry, lovely night. Fortunately, I got a text that the order was on the way less than 30 minutes after I placed it, which is unusual for a Friday night in this town. I told the dog that the pizza guy was coming, which caused him to sit in front of the door and watch dutifully.

I could hear him getting excited and woofed a little bit, so I went to the door and there was the young woman who has delivered a few times to us. A sweet, beautiful, smiling face and obviously an animal lover because she always loves to pet the dog. I asked her a basic question, like “hows it going?” She replied that it was going great now that it’s Friday and she was done with school for the week. I said oh you’re working this job and going to school that’s a lot!

She brightened up a bit more and said yeah it’s my last year well it’s taking me long enough, 10 years actually!

“Wow, 10 years that’s a lot of perseverance. You should be really proud of yourself”, I honestly told her.

I can’t quite say what the look on her face was, it wasn’t actually a blush, but I could see her breath draw in and she said “oh wow you have no idea how that makes me feel. Thank you so so much!”

I have tons of friends and acquaintances many of them much younger than me and what I could see in her is a pattern that I’ve seen in too many young people. Not enough people had told her that what she was doing was amazing. She was now obviously in her late 20s, and somehow in all those long years she never gave up. It would’ve been inappropriate, but I wanted to give her a hug and tell her that as a parent I understood the struggles that she must’ve faced and to keep on smiling, that she was going to achieve her goal. That she was a winner. Of course I held back not wanting to overwhelm her with my exuberance. I asked her name and we shook hands, and I think that she took away the message that I was too cautious to actually completely give her.

As she left, she turned one more time and waved goodbye to us.

The point? The point is that today if you think about it and look for it, you will find somebody that needs something. Maybe a cold bottle of water on a hot day, maybe five bucks to get something to eat or maybe just a smile and an encouragement. It’s free, it’s easy and for me it’s just simply…well, “It’s what I do.”