Maintaining Perspective

On a bench in McPherson Square, there sits a homeless man. He is there almost every day, except for when the temperatures dip down into the teens. Every morning on my way to work, I walk past McPherson Square, and this man hollers out, to me and anyone else who is walking by, "Good morning, y'all!"

It is impossible to walk past him and hear that friendly, jovial greeting and not smile. This morning, as I bustled down the street, hurrying to get to work so I could hurry and leave work 10 hours later, his voice ringing out through the chilly morning really struck a chord.

I had been thinking about the long list of chores that are waiting for me just as soon as I make it through this work week. I have about ten "little" items on my list, which means about ten things that will take about two hours apiece to complete. And on top of that, I have to clean the entire house from top to bottom in preparation for a visit from the property management company next week. Being at work all day leaves me so tired that I can't seem to get much done in the evenings, which means my entire weekend is probably going to be spent working on my "home job."

I was feeling a little overwhelmed, and, I will confess, a little bitter about it all when the voice cut through my thoughts. "Good moooooorrrning!"

And in that moment, I realized how amazing and blessed my life is. I have a warm house and bed to go home to. I have enough food to eat every single day. I have so many conveniences in my home like clothing and dishes and even extra food that I have to go home and figure out where to put it all. And yet, that man was in a better mood than I was this morning.

Needless to say, when I got home from work tonight, I tackled my to-do list with a lot less resentment and found myself appreciating the fact that I get to fold our clothes in a warm house, toss the dishes into the dishwasher, and eventually collapse into a comfortable bed for the night.