At one time, we owned a corner grocery store. My husband often said those were the best years of his life. He watched the children in the neighborhood grow up and chatted with all the mothers. I am sure there are some young adults in town who remember buying their first pop or candy bar at our little store. One day last week I did run into a clerk working there who remembered Harry owning it years before. She got wide-eyed when I said I was Harry’s wife.
Our girls learned to clean the outside lot (people seem to refuse to use the garbage cans set out), then were promoted to cleaning shelves and finally to working the till. I hope they have some good memories of it.
It left me with some memories of it too. I especially remember walking behind a mother who was towing along her small son across the parking lot. He was stumbling all over and finally she looked down, whipped off his short pants and did some readjusting.
“He dressed himself, this morning” she announced. “He put two legs into one pant-leg”.
We both laughed. I guess we’ve all had days like that.
It did make me realize that we spend our whole lives learning…right from dressing ourselves to being moms and grandmothers. It is a long learning curve and we often need a helping hand to do some readjusting.
I am a great believer in independence and even when very little I insisted that I could do things I had little skills for. I received one broken leg and many a bump and bruise when I attempted to do things I was un-capable of doing.
Similarly, seldom shy, I got myself in hot water with teachers, students and friends. Uncontrolled passion about life with its fun, music, drama and dance put a lot of grey in my mother’s curly hair.
But I have never apologized for my faith. Even when young, I was evangelical …preaching to my friends, burying my dead cats with a full service of prayer and praise…teaching tots at church Sunday school and just being a bit of a nuisance I think. All preparations for being a Church Elder I guess.
But like the little boy with the readjustment problem, I had lots of help. God knows when I needed it and somehow when in my enthusiasm, I messed up…He sent someone, like a mother or a father or a friend, to pick me up, dust me off and set me back on my feet. His patience and love is beyond description.
