One Key Short

I have a little personal theory in life. It’s sort of like my personal keys to happiness. I would venture to say that  my methodology works because I believe most people would see me as a generally upbeat person. I don’t usually talk about the keys although I did speak briefly about them at a symposium a few weeks.

The plan is simple; each and everyday, do one thing to take care of yourself. Do one thing that takes care of someone else. And do one thing that scares the living heck out of you. And you’ll be happy. If you try it, and find me wrong….. let’s chat.

Yesterday I picked my daughter up from the train to take her to a doctor’s appointment. While waiting for the train, I decided to poke around a local discount retail store to kill time. While there, found a kick-ass New Balance thermal technical jacket reduced from $80 to $20. Excuse me ….. I shall have that! Done, something for me.

On the way walking to the train, I saw a young girl who was seated outside on a piece of cardboard huddled over a sign which simply read “Homeless and Hungry. Please help if you can. God Bless You”. As compassionate as I am, these situations worry me because if I help monetarily, I wonder if I am just perpetuating a downhill spiraling drug problem. But she really seemed hungry. Across the street was a Pretzel Factory and I quickly grabbed a couple of warm fresh pretzels and a bottled water.

So I walked back over to my homeless friend, knelt down to her level (surprised the heck out of here actually), and asked her if I could offer her something to eat. In a drought, scratchy, and tired word, she simply uttered “yes” in a barely audible response. I handed her the bag and told here they were still warm and wished her good luck. The “thank you” that I heard from her next was full of life and of hope.

As I picked up my daughter and we made our way back to the car, we passed the girl again. This time she was seated with a friend, and she was sharing her food with this other person. Alone, cold, and on the street, she paid forward my random act to another person. She looked back up and me, smiled, and said “Bless You”.

It was a happy ending. BUT I didn’t really do anything scary yesterday. Although one could argue that sitting down next to a homeless stranger takes a certain amount of trust and confidence. It didn’t really scare me. Something told me that it was safe and it was right.

I think the hidden moral here just might be that you may not end each day finishing everything on your to-do list…. i.e. turning all three keys.  But that should not take away or tarnish the things that you did get done.

Use today to make a difference somewhere or put a smile on a stranger’s face. FYI, my afternoon ended with the perfect lunch date with one of my perfect daughters. How I was blessed to have two of them, I’ll never know.

Go make a difference. We’ll talk more about keys later.