Day 327 Question 327:

Do you have holiday regret?  How would you fix it?

So, a fellow blog follower told me the other day that I wrecked his jovial mood with the serious toned blog entry (he was kidding of course…well I think he was) so I suggested that he throw out a question for me to answer.  The question above is what he suggested….which I do not see as too jovial but he took the time so I will too.  I wanted to share with you what he shared with me:

I thought about this when I was at a post office today and I thought about an incident that happened last year. I was standing in line at the same post office getting ready to mail out all the Christmas packages. In comes this small frail raggedy old man with thick accent. He goes up to the teller and starts explaining that he had lost the roll of stamps he just purchased from her, and was wondering if anybody turned it in. Lady looks on and tells him there is nothing she can do. He turned around and all the people waiting in line had good chance to look at this poor old frail man. Everybody was silent for that moment…Old man was hobbling as he made through the main door, everybody in line was silent.

I think I know what everybody was thinking at that moment, but nobody did a damn thing, including myself. Why didn’t I at least hand him few bucks while that was going on???!! because that would have prompted everybody else to pitch in. NOBODY TOOK THE FIRST ACTION, everybody was waiting for somebody else to do something first. How am I going to fix this? You better believe I will never sit on the sideline ever again when something like this happens again.  The end.

Now, if you know me, you know I try as hard as possible to not live with regret because it really serves no purpose.  This, however, is an opportunity.  I was touched by the story that this man shared with me and I reflected on how much I have done for others and while reflecting I have realized that I have not done enough.  It is not nice to face certain things but I lived a large part of my life being very selfish and not taking into consideration the people out there that are forced to work on Holidays and have nothing to eat or no gifts for their children on holidays.  A few months ago I came up with an idea and I am still debating whether or not to do this or do something a little different.  I would share with you now but I want to wait until after Christmas day to see if I followed through.  I do not regret the things I did not do but I know that now is my chance to make it up.  As a child, a teen and even into my adult years I was always asking for materials and I always wanted more more more.  Right now at this place in my life I do not want from others….I want to give to others….to those that have had nothing (or next to nothing) and deserve the chance for happiness.  There is a radio show I listen to every morning on the way to work and every year at Christmas time I end up getting all choked up in the car on my drive.  This particular morning show asks people to nominate families in need for what they call Breaking and Entering Christmas.  Three families are chosen every year by the cast members (and these families are usually in desperate need with mountains of hospital bills, sick children, loss of jobs, etc) and they have friends take the family to breakfast or somewhere to keep them distracted while they break into their house and fill their home with gifts.  They provide a Christmas tree and decorate the entire house.  They fill the refrigerator with groceries and buy the children presents that they have wanted that they never imagined in a million years they would ever get.  They take care of some of their expenses to help them get ahead financially.  The amount of giving that this radio station does for those in need is unbelievably heart-warming and is what this world should be about not only on Christmas but every day of the year.

I don’t like to live with regret in my heart.  When asked this question yesterday all that I could think of was what opportunities I had right now.  I do not want gifts this year (even though I know I will get them because my mom insists) because I have enough and I can provide for myself what I need.  I have lost the wanting of things from others and what I need now is to DO for others.  What makes me the most happy in this world is being a part of someone else’s happiness….knowing that I was able to bring joy to someone else.  There is nothing that can touch that feeling.