Today I would like to write about something else, giving people hope. I found out recently that you don't have to do much at all, or even anything on purpose, to give someone hope.
I was at work last week when an older man wearing a back brace and a pained look on his face came into the store. I asked him, "How you doin' this evenin'?" He said, "Eh, I'm not so good, got some back pain.", and continued on his way. When he came back to my register I asked him what had happened to his back. He told me that he'd had his entire spine-from top to bottom- surgically realigned, because he had a severe curve in it when he was growing up and now he could afford to have it straightened. I told him I kind of knew how he felt. I had three back surgeries on my lower lumbar, the third resulting in the fusion of 1/4 of my lower back vertebrae. A look of pure joy came over this mans face as I spoke to him. I wasn't sure what exactly made him look so happy.
He began asking me a lot of questions.
"Did your doctor tell you to walk for exercise too? Did it hurt to move longer than you thought it would? How long before you felt back to normal?"
"He told me to build up to walking two miles at a time. Man, it hurt waaaay longer than I thought it would, I don't did think I did more than get up to pee for six weeks! Ha! It was a good year before I felt back to normal; where I could do all the same things I could before the surgeries but now with minor modifications."
'Wowwie," he said as he looked me over. "You're standin' up straight and picking things up! I can't wait to be all fixed up new like you! You know, you've given me hope miss Tricia. I haven't thought at all that I would get all the way better and seeing you standing here I know I can." He grinned from ear to ear.
"Good, I'm glad!" was all I could manage to say. It made me think that too many people discount themselves and things they've overcome; people don't see the little amazing things they've done. When I think about it, it's amazing that I am even living and breathing at this point. My twin sister and I were born pre-mature, I weighed 2lbs 3oz and she 2 lbs 6 oz. I almost died several times and I had three major back surgeries in my early twenties which I was told might leave me on disability for the rest of my life.
I'm not dead yet. Quite the contrary, I'm very much alive. And at this moment, the mere fact that I am walking around with a job is enough to give someone hope. That man with the back brace doesn't even know anything else about me except that I am alright and I've been through something like him.
I bet you're giving someone hope too, and you haven't the faintest clue. I consider myself more or less blessed (so to say, I don't like to use that phrase but being southern this is the closest I can find to express what I'm meaning) that he told me he felt that way. I walked away from that conversation a tad bit flaberghasted with my head held a little higher.
I'd like to make it a new habit to mention to people little things they do that inspire me. I think that would be nice.
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