I am grateful for the gift of a new day.
My heart is filled with gratitude for the many blessings I have.
I will appreciate the small joys and express my thanks in all circumstances.
Let my attitude of gratitude bring joy to others.
Yesterday I recognized how grateful I am for other people.
It was July 4th and many businesses were closed. I was excited about having a day of “freedom” of listing items and tidying up at my shop without having to get out any packages for the Post Office at 5:30, because the Post Office was closed for the holiday. I arrived about 1:00. It was a beautiful sunny day. The 4th of July parade in Delaware was over and people were walking back to their cars, but the other businesses around me were closed. I unlocked the door, locked it from the inside, turned on the lights, and then hung my purse with the keys and my cell phone in the shipping room. Then I took a trip to the bathroom I share with the Delaware Music Center and Gullet Guitar Repair shop. I opened the door from my shop, stepped into the hallway and then opened and locked the bathroom door.
When I was done, I washed my hands and went back through the bathroom door and then tried to open the door to my shop. It has a very sensitive lock. You just touch it and it locks. And it was locked! I must have brushed it when I walked through. It is an inside door lock, not a deadbolt. No problem. I had done this before. There is a hallway that leads to an outside door and in the past, I have gone around and out and back into my shop.
But no, the door to the outside door was locked! I was locked in! And I couldn’t have gotten in to my shop anyway because I had locked my shop door and the key and my cell phone was hanging inside. My little brain raced around thinking about what I could do. NO ONE was around. I was locked deep inside in a windowless area so it wouldn’t help to yell or pound anything. My friend, John, who helps me said he would come in around 3:30. OK. I had access to water and the bathroom. Maybe I could sleep and then pound when I heard him come in. But that would be hours. Stewart wouldn’t worry about me until probably 8 or 9 when I didn’t come home. But he didn’t have a key to the shop.
I tried jiggling the shop door handle and then I thought about what I could do to try to pry it open. That space is filled with cardboard boxes and there was nothing in the bathroom that was thin, strong, and nimble enough like a flat head screw driver to fit in the space between the door and the jam.
Then I remembered I had stored some metal pegboard hooks that the Music Center had given me to sell in a box on one shelf. I pulled one out and was able to get the hanger end between the door right above the lock and the door jamb. With a little effort I was able to pry the door against the jamb and move it enough to pull the lock out of the socket! Voila, I was able to open the door!
I told John what happened when he got there and showed him how to jimmy the lock if he ever got in that situation. And when I got home, I told Stewart. He said if I hadn’t come home by 9 and wouldn’t have answered my phone, he would have driven over to the shop. But he would have panicked when he saw my car there and would have called the police if he couldn’t get hold of John.
I got out of this “jam” myself, but it made me realize how much I need, we all need each other. I was preparing myself to wait for John or until someone from the Music Center needed to use the bathroom on Saturday. If I had gotten out of the building, I would have asked to use someone’s cell phone to call for help. It wouldn’t have mattered what gender, political party, age, or religious affiliation they were.
Every business relies on vendors and customers to sustain itself. A business would not stay in business very long if it refused to serve customers or use vendors who were not part of one group. Any team of students, or work crew, or military platoon needs the expertise and talents of all the other people in the group. It makes for a safer environment and better outcome, even if not everyone agrees or gets along with each other every step of the way.
And it’s not as if you won’t have disagreements even if everyone in your group is of the same political party, gender, or religion. Those soldiers storming the beaches on D-Day in 1944, sure didn’t refuse to help anyone because of political differences.
I get so disheartened when people focus on differences, question other people’s love of country, threaten others, and even plan and commit violence because we don’t agree on certain things. We can find so much common ground, especially when we are all citizens of the same country and members of the human race on this planet of ours. Others do not deserve to be hated or made to suffer. Instead, let’s find ways to help all people in need to make the most of their lives and enjoy the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We don’t know when we might need someone to help us.
I’m grateful for those who love their fellow citizens and human beings and want, wish, and work for the best for everyone.