A Lesson Re-learned This Holiday Season by Nancy Arbeene

This morning I was running late for work. It was pouring rain. The road was icy. My hair was wet. I had a perfectly awful day yesterday. All the chaos of the holidays had gotten to me. I was stuck in traffic. I already decided this was going to be another lousy day for me.

At one of the stoplights on my way, I watched as a truck in the opposite direction lose a load of PVC pipe. They scattered and rolled across the street like a pile of huge pick up sticks.

My immediate reaction was that I was going to be even later for work, what a stupid thing that guy did, and reached for my phone to call the police.

Before I could dial, I looked around and saw people getting out of their vehicles. Most were laughing. I watched them start to move the pipes off the street. It made me re-think how everything that was wrong was actually my attitude and me.

I got out of my car and helped to move a pipe in the middle of the street. It was too heavy for me to lift, so I rolled it across with my foot. Another woman was doing the same thing and we laughed at each other. One of the men picked them up with a big grin and said thanks.

It took no time to help this man. He yelled to all of us “Thank you guys.” We all looked at each other, smiled and drove away. It felt great.

 My selfish, stupid, self-centered feelings washed away. There was a lesson in all of this that I needed to re-learn even at my  age. It was an unexpected gift to be able to simply help someone else and I am grateful that it happened. Puts things in perspective for me about what is really important, and I wish a happy holiday season to everyone.