Smatterings of Happiness

Happiness mostly happens to me in small bursts, not in gigantic waves.  Sometimes if I am not paying attention I might miss these bursts completely.  Here is one I am glad I did not miss: Yesterday I was at WinCo, the local bag-it-yourself grocery store picking up a couple of items.  Because it was a Saturday there were many long lines at check-out.  I happened to find a miraculously short line and was headed toward it just when a couple with a cart full of food pulled in ahead of me.  I was disappointed, but realized this would still be a shorter line than the ones around me.  The couple glanced back at me.  Seeing that I had only a couple of things, they very generously offered to let me go ahead of them.  At first I protested, but then graciously accepted.  Because of the verbal interaction between us, a sweet friend of mine that I never get to see enough heard my voice behind her and turned around to greet me.  She had a large stack of groceries that she was just beginning to bag.  As I finished my transaction and thanked the couple again, I went over to greet her.  I noticed that her fingers were very white and asked about them.  She explained that she has Raynaud's syndrome, which turns her fingers white and numb when they are cold.  I offered to help her bag her groceries and she gratefully accepted.  We loaded up her groceries and I helped her get them into the back of her car.  I had gloves on, and she mentioned that it would help her if she remembered to wear her gloves.  We said goodbye, and I drove home thinking about how wonderful it was that the couple in my line performed a sweet and simple act of kindness for me, that in turn allowed me to pass that act of kindness onto someone else, small acts that created happiness for all involved.  (I later brought my friend some gloves to keep in her pocket for when her hands got cold)  It is these smatterings of happiness that make life rich and worthwhile.

May I share one more?  My black church shoes were absolutely falling apart.  I noticed it two Sundays ago when the ground was wet, and suddenly so were my feet.  As I stooped to examine why I discovered a large crack extending the width of my shoe right over the ball of my foot.  The shoes were getting old and worn looking anyway, but I don't love shoe shopping and chose to ignore the problem.  Last Sunday when I put my shoes on again for church I could feel the crack from the inside.  The wet ground outside and my once again wet and cold feet reminded me that the shoes needed to be replaced.

Monday morning I decided to put new black church shoes on my vision board.  We could afford the shoes, but the price of time to find the right height of heel and something cute and comfortable would be expensive.  I drew a crude picture of a black dress shoe on a piece of paper for my vision board.  The shoe turned out ugly and deformed, so I decided to try drawing the other shoe.  It was worse than the first, so I decided to write the word "cute" on the paper as well so that I would not end up with a pair of ugly shoes!  As I spent a few minutes envisioning what my shoes would be like (hence the word 'vision board') I visualized cute low but thick heels, something not shiny black, but more of a suede material.  I imagined they would feel very comfortable when I put them on, as I often spend all day in them on Sundays.  Then I taped the picture onto my vision board and went about my day.

The next morning I was late getting to the gym.  As I left the gym I realized that the local thrift store would just be opening.  It would take only 5 more minutes from where I was in town to get to that store.  (I have this thing where I like to look at the thrift store first for what I need before going for something new right off the bat.  It is amazing what you can find at thrift stores in like-new condition and at a fraction of the price!)  As I entered the shoe section of the store I saw a long aisle of shoes in my size.  The first pair of black shoes that I spotted at first looked like flats.  Not what I was looking for.  But as I pulled them off the rack, they were in fact low thick heels.  Cute? Yes.  Suede-type material.  I pulled off my tennis shoe and tried one on.  It was like it was made for my foot, totally comfortable.  I could not believe it.  Funniest of all, it resembled the picture I had drawn, but was much cuter!  I could scarcely believe it.  I had found the perfect shoe 2 minutes after entering the store.  I walked down the long rack of shoes to see what my other options might be.  There were none, absolutely none!  All the other black dress shoes were either open toed, ugly, too high of heel, or too tight.  Literally the only pair in the entire store that worked for me was the first pair I had picked up.  I paid for them and was out of the store within 10 minutes.  I could not have been happier.  Who had granted me this wonderful act of kindness, this smattering of happiness?  It was my higher power of course!  The author of acts of kindness and happiness.

These smatterings of happiness are everywhere when you look for them.  Some you create for others, and some others create for you.  Take the time to create them and to see what is being created for you by others.  It will give you that burst of happiness, that smattering of joy that makes life rich and worthwhile!