You Made My Day!

The other morning, when I went to the Botanic Garden to walk, I waited till I thought I was out of sight of the workers gathered around the maintenance area, and reached down, one foot at a time, to pull off my shoes and then my socks.

Unbeknownst to me, however, two men in a golf cart had been behind me and caught up to me by then. I didn't hear the cart's motor; the way I knew they were there was that one of them called out, obviously to me, as no one else was around, "Oh, nice! You just made my day!"

I had a wonderful walk that day, including a bit of a run, and the weather was lovely. But I think my favorite part of it all was that unexpected comment and just knowing that a simple thing like pulling off shoes and socks could give another person some kind of little gift that could "make their day."

Then today, because I had no clients (bad for business), I decided to go to the Wednesday farmer's market(good for the soul--and also at the Botanic Garden) that I'd never been able to go to before because of seeing clients.

It was wonderful. Heirloom tomatoes, pattypan squash, beautifully dyed gourds, fresh peaches, homemade pecan candies, natural soaps and lotions, and all kinds of other lovely things were lined up along the walkway under the trees.

One stand caught my eye and wound up pulling me in. R.P. Funderburk of Olive Branch, MS, makes some of the cutest birdhouses I've seen! I couldn't help looking at them. And when he came up and started talking to me, my "I didn't bring any cash or my checkbook with me" (true, silly me) didn't matter to him. If I wanted one, he said, I could take it and send a check in the mail.

Which I just sat down to do, and when I realized that I was about to write, "You made my day!"--well, I wound up deciding to write about this on my blog. (No, I don't have ADD; I just have too much time on my hands today, which is fine with me.)

It's not so much that I needed a birdhouse, though I do think this one is cute, and it's possible that having a wren around will cut down on the spiders that plague our front porch.

No, it's just that here in the middle of Memphis, I have met a man who makes birdhouses by hand, who for whatever reason has decided it is worth his time to do that and to travel about sharing them with other people, and this man trusts me to take a birdhouse without paying him. He believes that I will send him that check, as I assured him I would do.

I sure didn't know that taking my shoes off was going to make someone else's day, and I doubt Mr. Funderburk set out to make my day.

So maybe the truth in all this is that just by being ourselves and pursuing the things we love, we wind up bringing blessings to other people without even meaning to. I like that idea.

And I like walking barefoot.

And I do like this birdhouse!

Okay, now back to getting that check in the mail....