Some Gave All

My heart is heavy tonight.  Sometimes I don't understand the evil in the world.  I know it's not my place to try and understand it and nor could I even if I tried but sometimes the evil hits closer to home than others.

In my former life, I was a police and fire dispatcher.  I loved what I did all except for the hours and working holidays, nights, and weekends so I moved on to something that worked better for my family.  But while I walked away from that career, a piece of my heart will always remain with my former law enforcement family.  Law enforcement is just like that ..

Today, the Sacramento and Placer County law enforcement communities lost 2 deputies to the actions of criminals with no value for human life.  Today, 2 deputies kissed their families, went to work, put their lives on the line, and paid the ultimate price.  Both were husbands and fathers, brothers and sons.  Countless other lives will be effected forever all because of the cowardly actions of criminals.

So, even though I'm hundreds of miles away, my heart is broken.  Thank you Sacramento County Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County Deputy Michael Davis for your ultimate sacrifice.

"All Gave Some, but Some Gave All...."

To the Least of These

Truth .. I wanted to ignore him. 

Really, I did and more often than not, I do. 

I'm sure some of you will think I'm being callous, mean, selfish, self-absorbed, cruel, etc. Maybe I am and honestly probably a little cynical from my former days in law enforcement.  But something about this man caught my eye and despite my best efforts to ignore him, I just couldn't.

Let me set the stage.  My darling son was driving us home (reluctantly I might add) from a doctors appointment and darling daughter was thirsty and needed a drink.  Naturally, a stop at QT will cure her dying of thirst, so my young driver maneuvers to the farthest parking spot he can find from the door lest he have to use his driving skills to park next to someone.  In this effort to have a "cushion of protection" he parks right in front of a homeless man.  I hand the kiddos $10 to get their drinks and avert my eyes before said homeless man makes eye contact.  Eye contact is always bad ... always. 

I successfully avoid really "seeing" him but I notice that he is drinking a soda, has several bags with him, and he is filthy.  He looks weathered from days in the sun, I assume from being on the street but perhaps from years of working out in the elements.  Several people walk by.  Everyone averts their eyes.  He doesn't say a thing.  He has no sign.  He makes no plea.  When the 5th person walks by without acknowledging him, he simply asks if the man has any spare change.  The man ignores him.

About this time my kiddos walk out drinks in hand and a fistful of change.  The man says nothing.  My son hands me my change and I hand him a couple of dollars for the man. 

"God bless you" says the man with a smile.

I don't know what the man intends to do with the money.  The cynical part of me says he saving up for his drug of choice.  The compassionate part of me hopes that isn't the case.

I don't tell this story for a pat on the back or anything like that.  I would like to think that just for a minute I was given the opportunity to make the world a better place for this man or at least brought a smile to his face. 

Focus

Several years ago my hubby decided to get into mountain biking.  We bought fancy bikes, that cost way more than bicycles should cost, and all the gear that went with them and off we went.  My problem is, that while I am quite able to ride a bike on pavement, I am less capable riding on anything else.  However, I really didn't know that little tidbit of information until I was on the side of this mountain:

This particular "trail", although I argue that something that is about 18 inches wide cannot be classified as a trail, was "easy".  But "easy" is definitely in the eye of the beholder (or the rider in this case) and this "trail" is on the side of a mountain (if you look about halfway up the picture you can see the trail in question) and as a I mentioned I'm not the most accomplished rider. 

Darling hubby tells me it is all about focus.  If you don't want to end up down the mountain into the cholla cactus, focus on where you want to go and not where you don't want to go.  Sounds easy enough, right?  But unfortunately for me, said hubby mentions a snake track along the trail and that was all I could focus on wondering where that snake had slithered off to.  Before I knew it, this is where I ended up:

Let's just say the cholla cactus won and years later I still have a piece embedded in my leg.  A whole lot of pain all because I lost focus.

It is the same thing in life, if you focus on your problems, you will be filled with anxiety, anger, doubt, frustration. But if you focus on what makes you happy, guess what?  You will be filled with happiness.  It's all about focus!

What is happiness anyway? Is the pursuit of ones happiness being selfish? What will truly make you happy?  Power?  Money? A great job?  A family? A relationship?

Arlene Pellicane made some great points about happiness when she said,

    Happiness is about contentment. It’s not about comparison.
    Happiness looks out for others. It’s not only concerned with itself.
    Happiness is at peace with God. It’s not trying to win a popularity contest.
    Happiness is saying thank you. It isn’t saying I deserve better.
    Happiness chooses to respect. It doesn’t choose to retaliate.
    Happiness forgives. It doesn’t warehouse grudges.

So what makes you happy?  And on what will you choose to focus?