I'm often amazed by people. I'm even more amazed by the Universe, though. Just when I think that I couldn't be more amazed...I am fooled. Let me tell you why...

I have been sick all week. Like, waking up in the middle of the night; coughing until I hack up a lung; crying and wanting my Mommie kind of sick. I hate hate hate being sick. I've done everything I can think of--both physical and metaphysical--to get better. Some things have worked, but still...I want to be well.

My heart filled up to learn that people have been sending love and healing prayers to me--I can feel that influx of energy, by the way--and actually miss me when I'm not around. Really? Can that be so? Man, I'm SO not used to that................but I like it. :oD Yesterday, I had to do laundry. I hate having to walk the (almost) 4 blocks to the (overcrowded and overrun with screaming, running children whose parents clearly have no sense of discipline) laundrymat. All I wanted to do yesterday was sleep. But, this was a HAVE to situation. I decided to take the bus. I missed it at my regular stop, but the traffic was so backed up that I was able to catch it one stop down. The minute I got on the bus, I started coughing and hacking. I knew it was a mistake to do this, but I didn't have a choice. Who else was going to wash my clothes?

People started moving to the back of the bus; which cracked me up actually because I'm sure they were all like "OMG she's got that pig flu!" No no no. Don't believe the hype people. I'm an asthmatic with bronchitis. Oink.

Got off the bus, did my clothes...and then thought that I'd missed the bus going back. So, I decided to take it slow. I hadn't even stepped two feet out of the laundrymat, when the bus stopped in the middle of the street--not even at an official stop--and the driver waived for me to come and get on. It was the same driver who drove me to the laundrymat, and she knew I didn't feel well.

I nearly cried.

Nice things like that are a rarity, at least in the place where I live. Most of the folks in my neighborhood would sooner knock you over than to look at you. Then I realized something: I had completely changed my thoughts. I didn't allow the laundrymat to annoy me, or the screaming kids running around and through my legs to infuriate me as usual. I changed my perspective. Granted, I truly wanted to get done and out of there as quickly as possible. But, I didn't look at it as a challenge.

So, why am I sharing this? Yes, it's good to look at things differently, as it broadens our scope and expands our minds. But, mostly, I'm just amazed by niceness. How I can, for just one moment, cross someone's mind or my name will come from someone's lips. I never stop to think that people actually pay attention to me at all. I usually don't think that they do. LOL But, to know that--even if it's just for a second--someone thought of me in a nice way, or stopped a bus for me, or said hello to me, or said a prayer for me.........it just blows me away.

Never think that a kindness is taken for granted or not returned or unappreciated. It is. And, for me, it happens when I either need it most or expect it the least. And I'm grateful.