On Father's Day, we took my mom to Boulder where we hung out on the Pearl Street Mall. The Pearl Street Mall is a great place for people watching, and there are always buskers playing the piano...
...or dressed as a raggedy dog
...or showing off their super-human flexibility.
It was a sweaty day (how did that person tolerate the heat in that dog costume???), and we took a few breaks to stand or sit in the shade.
At one point, we sat on a bench under the umbrella of a well-placed tree. Cool air flowed out of the open doors of the store to my left - not the best use of energy, trying to cool the great outdoors, but I have to say it felt really good. As I sat there, I could watch some of the people crossing the street about 1/3 of a block away from me. I noticed a man in a wheelchair who, as he started to cross with a green light, was having a hard time getting his momentum. The orange hand beneath the stoplight that tells pedestrians they'd better get done crossing or they'll be squished bugs was flashing its warning, and the man was only halfway across the street. There was a young man in front of him who kept looking back, obviously wanting his fellow human to make it but, for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to do anything about it. Before the light turned red, another man, who had been crossing in the opposite direction, turned and pushed the wheelchair-bound man across the street. MY HEART FELT SO BIG IN THAT MOMENT!
And yesterday, a friend who lives in Washington State told me that she had had to stop because the car in front of her stopped to let A RAT cross the road. The rat couldn't make up its mind for a moment, so my friend and the amazing person in front of her had to wait for a short while in order to avoid killing the little guy. My friend said that the whole thing brought tears to her eyes.
So many moments of grace in this life. They are happening all around us all of the time. We can watch the news and not believe that this is a very friendly place or we can watch what goes on around us and know that life is chock full of grace and beauty and kindness.
Reminded me of when I was younger and my dad, driving along a road on our way to the beach, stopped to let a grass snake cross the road.
ReplyDeleteTotally unrelated to your post, we have just returned from a sweet, independent cinema on the east coast of the UK. We saw Salmon Fishing in the Yemen which we loved!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great outing! Kind of reminds me of what you might find in Asheville, NC as far as the buskers go. I'm glad you and your mom are having good outings. It's heartening to witness random acts of kindness towards our fellow humans as well as critters. I suppose I do something similar. After rainstorms, when the worms wash out onto the driveway I take a stick (can't stand to touch them) and toss them back into the grass.
ReplyDeleteI think that I would have liked your dad, Dancing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for telling me about the movie. I saw that it's showing here, but we won't have time to see it for quite a while, so I put it in our Netflix queue. I'm looking forward to seeing it!
Thank you for saving the worms, Foam!
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