Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS (Don't write about the song) (04/16/15)
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TITLE: Just a Thought | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
04/19/15 -
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The words hit me unexpectedly. I’d gone to her Facebook account to wish her happy birthday. There she was. Smile as big as a canyon, perky little hair bob, eyes hidden behind sunglasses, hugging her daughter.
I was feeling far from perky but wanted to do my duty to a former student. Recovering from surgery had taken longer than expected and it was hard to sit alone at home. I set my hands to type and noticed the saying plastered against a clear blue sky and roiling ocean scenario, “In the middle of my little mess, I forget how big I’m blessed.”
Strange how themes keep coming back. Two weeks ago I sat in the dentist office waiting for a filling. The weather-beaten father beside me was humming something that sounded like ‘Count Your Blessings’.
I couldn’t help myself. “Feeling blessed are we?” I said out loud.
He turned toward me without hesitation and said, “Of course.”
“Quick in and out for you today, then?” I continued.
“Oh, no, another root canal.”
I furrowed my brows in question of his sense of blessing. “Where’s the blessing in that?”
He smiled and pointed at his mouth. “See these puppies. I’ve had 43 fillings, 16 crowns and 11 root canals.” He pointed away toward the dental rooms behind the reception desk. “Every time I come in I get to hear where Dr. Kennedy and his team have been this time. They’ve been to Kenya, Liberia, Ghana, Haiti and all over establishing dental clinics and training dentists and I know I’ve been helping to support them as they go.”
I shook my head. “Strangest blessings I’ve ever heard of,” I said.
“Oh, that’s nothing,” he responded. “I’ve had eleven major surgeries and it is so good to be able to encourage the people in those hospitals who have to clean up the worst messes, the dieticians who work so hard to get the food out to everyone, the nurses who have to work so long and so hard, and those doctors who put our life in their hands over and over. They are such a blessing.”
“So, sounds like life has been pretty tough on you?”
He looked at his watch, stood and waggled his head back and forth. “Gotta keep moving. Had a car wreck and the body still stiffens up if I don’t keep moving. It’s a blessing really.”
I adjusted myself to look up into his face. “You think a car wreck was a blessing?”
He began rotating his shoulders and looked back at me. “Not the car wreck itself. Lost my wife and three kids in the accident. But afterward, I had to keep moving to help my body heal and that made me get out and do things.”
I felt the ache in my own back and stood to join him. He was a good five inches taller. “So, what kinds of things keep you moving?”
He intertwined his fingers behind his neck and pushed his head hard against his hands several times. He seemed in no hurry to answer. Finally, he sat and cleared his throat. “Mighty curious aren’t you?” He stretched out his feet onto the coffee table on top of the daily paper. “Guess I started out hosting a tea for lonely seniors who had no family. The pastor really was the one who got me onto that.” He checked his watch again. “Next, I went down to the animal shelter and started patting cats and dogs and just helping clean up a bit.”
I was getting impressed. “Sounds like you’re a blessing to a lot of people,” I said.
He took his feet off the coffee table. “Funny thing, that,” he said. “I thought it was nothing. I started walking in the community and noticed all the litter on the streets so I started taking a bag and picking up trash everywhere I went. It made me feel good to see the lawns and streets all cleaned up.”
“Suppose,” I said, “not a lot of people trying to take that blessing away from you.”
He rubbed the back of his neck for a moment. “Funny thing, that. I realized how good it made me feel to be thanked so I started writing all the people in the city who work so hard and never get thanked. Made a lot of friends just seeing other people as blessings.”
The receptionist called him, “Harvey, you ready?”
“Bless you, Joy,” he responded. “I’m ready.”
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