Feel good story of the day

I had a rotten night last night. I'm at the end of my rope again with stress. It's way too long a story to get into but suffice to say, I have too much responsibility, am tired of other people dropping their responsibilities in my lap and am also tired of paying the price and cleaning up

the fallout from the bad decisions of others that REFUSE to listen to anything I say. I'm at

a point once again of feeling like I need to take off somewhere by myself. I never will but I feel I should sometime. So just now, as I sat

with my sleeping puppy on my lap trying to regroup for a huge task I have to start, I thought of

something I witnessed 2 years ago and it changed my whole mood. I don't know about where y'all live but I can tell ya that a lot of kids in our area are not taught manners as we were when we were young. Many are bratty, disrespectful and downright irritating to be around and their parents are really to blame. They are undisciplined and get away with murder thereby taking no

responsibility for their behavior. We are dealing with this now with the teenage girl coaching

Olivia's cheerleading squad and that was one of the many things that set me off last night. So,

this is the flip side of that. My daughter moved on to a different school in our district 2 years ago where kids from 2 towns were brought together. I volunteer for as much as I can with Olivia's school and sports programs. I feel grateful to be able to be a stay-at-home mom and despite the fact that I know I would not have the patience to deal with kids all day, every day like a teacher, I love coaching and volunteering and getting to know them on a smaller scale. So I volunteered for field day at the beginning of the new year. The kids do all sorts of sports competitions outside. I was working the obstacle course. I would split each group in half for 2 teams and then they would run this course with jumps and different things and try to get their whole team to finish it first, like a relay race. There was a boy, whom I did not know, who had some severe physical disabilities. I don't know what the cause is but he walks

with much difficulty and seems to be very compromised on one side of his body as if he'd had

a stroke or something. But he is a sweet, handsome kid who always has a smile on his face. I worked with a bunch of different groups that day and kids can be SO competitive, especially the boys. They can get downright mad if they don't win and some even cheat to try to win or yell at other kids that slowed their progress down. So near the end of this one race, up comes this cool little guy with the disabilities. That trooper did the whole course, trying to do everything he was capable of doing and then I hear all this yelling from the kids. I look back to where the groups are standing at the start line and BOTH teams are just screaming this kid's name and cheering him on. Nobody cared who won anymore. They just wanted him to do well and yelled like crazy for him. I looked back at him and he was grinning from ear to ear and just chugging along as best he could. I teared up immediately and thought I had never seen anything so darn cool from a group of kids. It warmed my heart. Some months later, I was in the mall with Olivia. We were waiting on a check-out line at

a teen clothing store and that boy came up and spoke to the woman in front of me and then walked off and waited in the store for her while she was on line. I figured it must be his mom. I hesitated for a minute and then thought, parents of kids with disabilities so often get to see the bad stuff, the teasing and stares, the bullying. I felt that I had to tell this woman what happened that day. So I asked her if she was his mom. She said yes. I told her that I had to let her know what happened at field day in the fall. I'm sure at first, she was worried. Then I told her the story. I got choked up just telling it to her and she got emotional too. She was really moved and thanked me very warmly for letting her know. I'm sure that little boy's life has been marked with pain, both physical and psychological. But he has a beautiful smile on everytime I see him

and he teaches people important lessons everyday including this old jaded cynic.



I'm not sure if I have told this story on my blog before. I've been blogging so long now, I can't remember and may be repeating myself often these days but this story is worth repeating anyway. Sometimes, people drop their guards just long enough to show the real love and compassion that is hiding under their rough exteriors. We all bear crosses in one way or another. So I'm back to the kitchen table and a stack of bills and paperwork to bear. RATS!

But at least I feel a little better having recalled that miraculous day.