Eye-opening Trip Down Memory Lane

Coming home from the hospital where my dear friend had heart surgery today, I stopped at the local post office to buy stamps...you may remember stamps, they were once little cheap things we put on envelops when we wrote long letters to distant friends, paid bills or actually mailed out Christmas cards. Today, we use the internet more and more for all of the above mentioned correspondence. But today, I needed a real stamp to mail something....it's been a while. The long hot drive home from the medical center found me relieved to pull into our small hometown. I have long loved small town living.

Walking into the post office I was greeted by the familiar smell of post offices everywhere, no matter how big or how small, there is a distinguishable smell they have that can be found no where else. The cool air was refreshing and the hushed quiet felt reassuring, don't know why but it did. The hallway of mailbox faces lined the wall of the empty hall. I miss the brass plates that once adorned post office mailboxes, it's not the same when the detailed brass plates were replaced with the more economical and decidedly less attractive mailbox doors. Now they are just doors, no longer feel like locks to a treasure chest.

Maybe my kid-like fascination with post offices of days gone by was rather fanciful but I've always been enamored by them. I can remember being excited about going to the post office. We no longer live in a day and age where having your kid walk to town to check the mail is a good idea but we used to! I loved climbing the tall steps the old post office, the heavy glass doors the hushed stillness of the hallway that held the beautiful, magical brass-fronted mailboxes. I was also fascinated with the big poster of Uncle Sam pointing to you as you stood in front of it! Ah, and the metal stand with all the brochures from the different branches of the armed forces invited you to enlist and see the world. I always took one of each home with me because they ignited my imagination about foreign place I hoped to one day see. I miss those, too!

Today, I needed one stamp, so I entered the inner office of the post office where you buy stamps and/or send off packages. There were only two men to be seen, the professional though friendly postal worker behind the counter and a man in well-worn overalls talking about the merits of changing daylight savings time to winter months rather than the hot summer months where you work till nine, don't have dinner till eleven and then have to start all over again early the next day. I said, "Sir, I will vote for you for any office for which you choose to run based on that platform alone!" I, too, am not a fan of longer hot days! Never cared for daylight savings time, not any of my life. I prefer my days to be days and my nights to be night over daylight extended well into the night time hours.

He then moved on to discuss with some disdain the state of our country under our current leadership. Terse words about terrorist, birth certificates, et cetera were tossed over his shoulder as he left the glassed in inner office. I commented to the postal worker that he must hear all sorts of commentaries. He said he heard all sorts of things every day. This man, he said, had just lost his combine; he just lost everything and it was so hard to be a farmer in this economy. My heart was heavily burdened for the farmer than just walked out the door. I do not know him, do not know if I would recognize him if I saw him again but  my heart hurt for him. We have a lot of farmers in this area and, sadly, I must say, I have not given them a lot of thought. But this day, I felt a heavy weight of knowing my fellow small-towner, a farmer, my neighbor has lost his entire livelihood. This hurt me through and through. 

Friends, we are all connected, all people. Small town, large cities, third world countries, remote islanders, famous and infamous, rich and poor, educated and illiterate...we are all connected. Sometimes we get so absorbed in our own little worlds and illusion of importance that we never give a thought to "those people" that do not hit our radar. Today, I felt conviction in my spirit for the blind eye with which I viewed my world. How can we say we seek to be more Christ- like if we do not have the heart and vision for all people Christ displayed over and over? God has a world vision, not tunnel vision. As one with a call to be a missionary, I have had a heart for lost people....somehow that world vision has narrowed and I've stopped thinking in world vision terms. For this I asked forgiveness. My prayer is that we purpose to open our eyes to all people. To feel their pain, share their joy, empathize with their issues, show compassion to those where needed and most importantly of all, do this in the name of Jesus!

My nostalgic memories of trips to the post office and my need for one little stamp was, I believe, a divine appointment to show me where I had lapsed into apathy where empathy would be more Christ-like. I always say I wish I got postcards from heaven....today it as a message in a post office...isn't that just like God?! 

Being Independent is Highly Overrated

By virtue of being American, we are raised with the pioneer independent spirit. We pride ourselves in our national mentality of independence. Sadly, in the world in which we live, that might not be such a bad thing. Or is it? It becomes a problem when we apply that thought process to our spiritual life. We can not function outside of God's will for us and still enjoy the fruit He has promised. Worldly success and Godly vision rarely are the same. You can be very successful and follow the Lord's ways, but it takes a self-discipline many never achieve. Self gets in the way.

As for me, I'd rather live in a tent and follow the Lord than dwell in a mansion of worldly living. I tried living my life "my way' as the old song tells of, failed miserably in every aspect of it, and finally surrendered to the Lord all those years ago.

At the time my Honey and I married, I had been my sole support for many years. I wasn’t ‘rolling in the dough’ as the saying goes but I kept a roof over my head, never went hungry, paid my bills, bought my own vehicle, went on mission trips, tithed every Sunday and was actively serving Him in many different ways. I had, thanks to God, been blessed with promotion on my job. Life had taught me not to depend on another person and I was fiercely independent. Sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it?

Moving in with my new husband was a blessing and a challenge at the same time. Learning to live with a partner again did not come easily. First, I planned on being transferred with my company from Austin to San Antonio. That did not happen and the bottom line was that the nice income I/we were expecting as a given was not to be. This came as an emotional and psychological blow to the former Miss Independent, now Mrs. Married with no job. I searched for a job with comparable pay, found nothing. I did find a job I enjoyed a lot in spite of the pitiful salary but physical issues forced me to resign. I was forced to be dependent on my Honey. This was painful and terrifying to me; my history reared its ugly head to remind me that depending on a man was not a good thing.

The one thing that kept me from losing my mind was that I knew, knew God had put my Honey and I together to serve Him in ministry. It was through an immense amount of prayer and Bible reading that I realized God was using that time of transition to build my faith in Him and my new husband. Growing pains, my constant companion; I learned to simply stand in faith on the plan God had for my life.

Soon after, we became a family of six rather than two when four of our grandchildren came to live with us. They were young, troubled by all the pain in their own lives and needed me home with them. Had I been working, I would have had to quit. God had used my transition time to prepare me for life with my husband and children.

Every day I'm thankful for the wake-up call from God, as painful as it was at the time, because my life today would not be possible had all that not happened. Independence, I have discovered, is not for me! Dependent financially on my husband does not equate to lack of self-esteem or personal failure; I want and need to be dependent on the Lord. I love being partners with my Honey and, though my contributions to our life together do not come in the form of a paycheck, they have value and make our lives richer for them. I have learned to lean on my husband and not see that as a weakness; I have learned to trust him more and more as I trust Him more. Funny how that worked.

Soapbox Observations

Customer Service - where did it go? This has me jumping up and down on my soapbox. Wouldn’t you think in this hard economic time with more people unemployed than there are jobs that those blessed enough to have a job would do everything in their power to insure they actually get to keep it? If we are to believe mass media, questionable sanity required, we are being told that fifteen million people are competing for two million jobs. This just addresses those folks listed on any such statistic.

So, doesn’t it seem this would step up the quality of job performance of Joe Q. Public, working person? I think so but my humble opinion is apparently not shared by the masses. The quality of customer service on an average shopping or service seeking trip is at an unsettling low.

Now before there are mobs formed to throw rocks at me, let me qualify these remarks. There are fine employees and business owners dedicated to quality customer service. This is not about those entities at all but rather a look at places where such is not consistently found.

I’m not sure if it is an attitude in the workplace or the lack of training in customer service that is to blame; probably both. Rather than an attitude of gratitude for even having a job, it is not uncommon to hear disgruntled employees venting to one another about their plight. This is happening everywhere in front of customers! I know this because I hear this. I’ve had employees ‘helping’ me complain about their job situation to me. That’s never good.

I’ve been shopping in large stores and found no salesperson in sight to answer a question, only to stumble across a gaggle of them huddled together in a remote location sharing whatever with one another. Group training? I don’t think so.

Then there is the emotionless cashier that scans their way through your purchases with nary a smile or interaction. Do you feel the love?

There is the inevitable employee that looks up in disgust when you have the nerve to make an inquiry. Can’t you see they are busy? They don’t have time for people and their pesky questions.

I play out my own version of Donald Trump in my head when I run across such an employee. I fire them! It's important that you note the "in my head" part. I know that those I mentally fire would never be allowed to work in my place of business.

Has it always been this way? Maybe in isolated cases but it seems to be getting worse with time. Common courtesy is an endangered species. Customer service is woefully lacking. Not only is the customer no longer always right, the customer is regarded as an intrusion. Commercialism at its best? No way!

I’m not a chronic complainer. I’ve only sent food back at a restaurant once and only then because it was inedible. But I do think people have the right to be treated with common courtesy and at least adequate customer service. I think employees and business owners have that same right and should be treated with respect, as well.

Just so you know, I am self-employed as a freelance writer and place a higher standard on myself than I expect from others. I need customers and need them to be happy with the quality of my work and the way they are treated. If my employee (me) gets sloppy in her treatment of customers we’re gonna have a serious talk!