Give 'em A Chance

...You Never Know What Happens When You Do

Give ‘em a Chance

… You Never Know What Happens When You Do

So you are sitting at a corner with your right turn signal on.  It’s been on now for what seems like an hour (but probably only five minutes).  It’s one of those turns you make in winter that takes less than fifteen seconds.  There are thoughts going through your mind.  Some of these thoughts get a little ungod.  Like, “Are these … people ever going to go home!”

Pretty sure a variety of colorful words mix in, with some people, in with this tiny wait in life.  A  few times I still feel a frustration when this happens.  I always want to grasp the concept of patience and how good it is.  Praying during these waits is a bit weird because you head is constantly swiveling right and left looking for the miracle opening.  But it is an awesome chance to calm one’s spirit and practice patience.

Then I think of all the people streaming by the front of my blue car.  Are they on vacation, enjoying the absolute wonder of Creation our peninsula represents?  Are we willing to share it with folks who only get a week?  Maybe some are ‘summer folks’, who spend summers here to escape the roar of carbon monoxide, a constant where they live in the winter. 

Do we realize that like it or not, they fuel a good part of our economy, allowing us to pay mortgages, or more likely rent, food and gas – those of us, of the ‘Inside’, the peninsula called Leelanau.

Do we realize that like it or not, we must love them?

I remember my Mom or Dad telling me several times in my life, particularly when I was a teenager,  “You know I don’t have to like you!  But I will always love you unconditionally!”

My Dad would often follow that with, “If you see something in someone else you do not like, that something probably is within you.  Purge it!”

Those ‘proverbs’ of my parents stuck.  They were several of the ‘mantras’ I used when trying to get a business back on its profitable feet.  I know there are a few people who will never get it.  The kind where you finally ‘dust the sand off your sandals’ and move on.  I also know there are many people that do get it eventually.  Even, those you do not like.  Who, if you practice patience, become one of those you do like.  And sometimes these folks become the best of your friends.

Don’t stop with the car drivers holding you up.  Carry the ‘Give ‘em a Chance’ concept to everyone you meet, particularly those who help you.  The numbers of people is endless.  Anyone who mans what I still call a ‘cash register’, versus the computer it really is, at a gas station, grocery store, pharmacy, doctor’s office and countless other places deserves your love and respect.

Even people like you, who are just in a store to purchase some items; give these folks a chance.  When you hit a Meijer’s aisle parking jam, let the others go first.  Always defer to the other person.  A great one is when grocery shopping and someone comes up behind you with only a couple of items.  You turn and look and you say, “Why don’t you go in front of me, you only have a few items and mine will take a while.  I’m in no rush.”  When peace comes to you from their grateful reaction, remember that is a side effect, a good one, of practicing patience.

I wonder how many ‘chances’ He gives us?  Probably more than there are stars in the universe. 

clement

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