Ooey Gooey Mush

I spent 2-1/2 hours at Instacare today. Then I spent an hour and a half at the pharmacy. Good thing I took the whole day off work, huh?

Every year around this time I get sick. My body usually decides around the end of October that its walls of defense have crumbled against all the little viruses I get exposed to in my school of 600 cute but potential carriers. This year I felt I was doing quite well. I have had a cold for about 16 days running now. I lose my voice about every 3rd day but other than that it has been pretty mild and bearable. But I can't get well. So after a sleepless night I buckled under and headed into the doctor. They were swamped and then some. But I was extremely grateful for the time my doctor took with me once I got in there. He was kind and thorough and as I was leaving he thanked me for working with children. He apologized for the fact that I haven't been well but told me how much it meant to parents to have good people looking after their children every day. I was so honored to be able to be the recipient of his thanks, and so grateful he took the time to talk to me.

Turns out that this lingering cold has damaged my vocal cords and that is why I am in pain and constantly losing my voice. And I am supposed to limit the use of my voice while the steroids kick in-until Monday. Did I mention I work at an elementary school? I have a barrage of prescriptions and a multitude of thanks for the goodness I experience regularly. It helps offset the less enjoyable moments in life. As I sat there waiting for my prescriptions I reflected on a few instances filled with goodness that I've seen in the last 24 hours. I offer them as a little mush to soak into your heart, to make it warm and happy.

Just over the counter I listened to a pharmacist make a phone call. He was on the phone for a good half hour with a customer. He was kind and patient, and trying to help her find any way he could to help her afford her medications. He went through plans, prescription programs and rewards with her and had them printed for her if she wanted to come look them over more thoroughly. I am sure he didn't have that kind of time with the amount of traffic that was coming in, but I was impressed and touched by his efforts and kindness.

Yesterday on the playground a sweet boy whom I have mentioned in my blog before came running up to me. When we see kids doing good things we give them a little paper that says they were "caught being good". When they have collected several, they can trade them in for a prize, or just pay money to get the prize. This boy had saved up 10 caught being goods for 3 weeks and had enough to "buy" a little eraser. He was so excited and so proud of it. Not a minute later a little girl came to me in a panic because she had lost the last quarter she needed to buy her eraser. She was teary and sad. I watched this boy  walk up to her, put an arm around her and hug her tears away. He took his brand new eraser that he had worked so hard for and gave it to her without a second thought to what he was losing. He told her, "It's okay. This is yours now. No need to be sad anymore. I have made it okay." It was all I could do not to cry. I told this boy how wonderful it was that he had been so generous. He said, "Well, she was sad. I am a good boy. I needed to make her happy again."

Little miracles created from big hearts. Oh how I love it. Ooey gooey mush. It makes the world right and it makes me so grateful.

*PS-I have to admit that I took it upon myself to make things right for this boy. I gave him enough more caught being goods to get himself an eraser. His generosity deserved much more than that.