Attention

This past weekend, I cleaned the floors of my mother’s house on my hands and knees. It was an old school, deep south style cleaning going on in her house this weekend.  Cleaning that was long overdue.

Sounds like a pretty nice gesture, right?

Well, I was not doing it for fun nor was I really doing it for her. I was doing it because my prized possession person, my son was going to be staying with her for a longer than normal visit. It was my goal to make him feel comfortable and at home, minus some dust and dirt particles in the living quarters that would be harmful to his allergies. Don’t be so quick to judge me considering he is a boy and should be accustomed to such – you haven’t seen the living quarters.

I spent a weekend there to clean and cook for him. I was doing it all for him and to make me feel comfortable about this visit he requested.

In life, I know that we all set out with these goals, planning and preparing. We perpetually do things in life to prepare for one thing or another.  However as we live and learn daily, we find that what we set out in a plan and expect to learn, we learn something entirely different. The outcome is not expected.

While I spent those days cleaning, the person who benefited most from those days was who? My mother.  Notice I said benefited from the days spent and not the cleaning being done.  She does not get many extended visits from her daughters.  She let me know in her seldom subtle statements, that her greatest gift was having me and my son with her for the time that we were there.

I set out selfishly for the betterment of myself and my son, there was a greater purpose in the weekend cleaning. A gift that can’t be purchased – the most priceless gift of time.

Go about life with two realizations – don’t do things with only self in mind. Pay attention to your actions, it is certain that it is done more often than not. There is likely someone else among you that is seeking to receive or learn something from you. It is certainly a blessing to be a blessing.  Secondly, plan, prepare, clean, and dust – do what you like, but life will always present you with a greater lesson if you PAY ATTENTION.