$100 dollars in my pocket

I have $100 in my pocket. It’s mine, but it is not for me. It’s for, well I don’t know yet. I suppose it all started when I was a kid. My dad was always helping people out especially the less fortunate. One of my fondest memories was helping him get wood for a widow on Christmas day. Turned out to be my best and last Christmas with him, as he died before the next Christmas. For full story see “Wood for Widows” New Era, December 2005, 36.

After my father died one of the men in our neighborhood took in a large family in addition to his large family. He didn’t have enough for his own family let alone taking on this additional family. He asked me if I could plow his field so he could grow corn and beans. I was glad for the opportunity to help him out. He wasn’t home when I finished plowing the field but he sent his son out with $20 to pay me. I didn’t want to take the money but was afraid the son wouldn’t give it back to his father. So I took it with the plan to give it back to him the next time is saw him. For a young teenager twenty dollars is hard to keep on your pocket. It was one of the hardest twenties that I have ever had to keep. In fact I couldn’t. I spent it a couple of times but managed to somehow to re-earn the money. I gave him back the $20, he tried to resist but it told him “I had no use for it”. I lied, it was all the money I had and I didn’t know when I would be able to earn more money. But he needed it more than I did.

There was the time when the bag lady (that what the kids in the neighborhood called her) was pushing her grocery cart of aluminum cans down the street. I was driving by when my daughter said, “dad give her some money”. It was around Christmas and I wanted to set a good example for my daughter. So I turned the car around, parked and got out. When I walked up too her she acted scared. She pulled her cart close to her as if she thought I was going to still her cart of cans. I handed her a $20 and said Merry Christmas. She still was still unsure of me, and what I wanted. Slowly she unfolded the bill. When she saw it was a $20 she “gasped”. Tears came to her eyes as she said “thank you”. I thought how odd, its only $20. Then I realized that to me it was less than an hour at work. To her it was several days of collecting cans.

Then there was the lady at the hotel trying to get a room. She didn’t have a credit card and didn’t have cash. I simply handed the clerk my credit card and told the clerk to bill it to me. The lady started to resist but I told her it was OK. She broke down crying and through the tears said they had been traveling all day to bring her grandson for surgery the next day. She had been to several hotels and couldn’t get rooms. They had been trying to rent a room by having a family member call in their credit card but the hotels wouldn’t let them do that.

I don’t know the first time I put the 100 dollars in my wallet. I showed it to a group of scouts once. One asked why I carried $100 in my wallet. I said, “someday someone will need it and it will be theirs”. And that is the way it has been for years. There was the widow who has been forced out of her home, the lady who was divorcing her husband for abusing her kids, the single mother so she could have Christmas for her kids, the guy who has spent time being homeless and was trying to get back on his feet, the single mother who wanted to take her girls on vacation but didn’t have the money, the lady who’s house burned down and she need clothes for her and her grandkids, the list goes on. I don’t know how many times I have given it away. But within a few weeks it has always came back. We are not rich and the family finances couldn’t handle hundreds of dollars going out. But every time I gave it away, extra money come in to replace it.

I don’t know when the $100 I now have will be need by someone, but god does. When the time is right, I will know, and it will be gone. But it will come back, it always does.

Saying Good Morning

At one of the jobs i had everyone seamed very nice, except one person. She would swear like a sailor, even in front of guest. She was always in a bad mood and didn’t want to do anything for anyone, except her boss. Everyone except her was getting paid too much and didn’t deserve anything extra. I thought to my self, I have to watch what I say or do around her. If I needed something from her, I would simply find another way to get it done.

But despite this, I was nice to her. Each morning as I would walk by her desk I would pleasantly say “good morning”. At first there was a grumble, latter the grumble turned into a sarcastic good morning back, gradually the return good mornings became sincere. I was shocked one day, when returning from a trip she offered to do my expense report for me. She was even pleasant about it. I admit I was some worried about why she was being nice to me.

After a year of working there. I discovered that she is not only being nicer to me but to everyone else. It has probably been months since I herd her swear. I’m not saying that my niceness changed her life and attitude. But I hope it has made a difference. We never know how the little things we do will affect others.

Omega Thoughts

One of the operators at a gas-fired power plant was talking to me today. He said people are like a gas turbine; you have high frequency people and your low frequency people. These people like bad vibration in the turbine, cause lots of problems. If you don’t get them under control it can destroy the turbine. When these frequencies aren’t present, everything runs smooth and we can generate lots of power. This generated power is sent to the homes of thousands of people giving them the power they need to make their life better.

What kind of power a church or other group could create if they all worked together in love and harmony. They could do amazing things. What about our country, we have more wealth than any other country. If we were united we could do so much good. But there is too much politics; our elected officials are too busy battling each other, hoping that putting the other person down will gain them votes.

What about our homes, can’t we at least get along? How many kids and spouses have to go to bed with broken heats. What if we could turn hateful words into words of love and praise?

I remember one as a kid driving with my aunt and cousin. We were listing to a music tape and my cousin ejected it from the tape player. The tape got caught on the on the player door and he was about to break the tape to get it out. I said, “wait” I could see that the tape was just stuck on the player door. I pushed the door back open and saved the tape. As a kid, I was excited that I had saved one of their favorite tapes. My excitement was shattered when my ant turned to my cousin and said, “How many tapes have you ruined”. I couldn’t believe it; she took it as an opportunity to criticize her son. I had done something good and he had done nothing wrong.

Being kind and loving is not difficult. We all want to be loved and accepted. But we just don’t seam to understand, what goes around comes around. Give love and acceptance and you will get it in return. It may take time, but it will come back. I tried to apply this principle in raising my kids and it worked. In my home I seldom, if ever, hear mean or unkind things said by anyone in my family. The amazing thing is that it goes beyond your home. You will soon take it to work and your kids will take it to school.