Gold Coast, Australia
New stories update on 24 March 2012
New stories update on 24 March 2012
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A Work In Progress offers real life inspiring stories on
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A Note for You from Graham and BevEco Islanding if we don't ask, we don't get (seek and you shall find out)
Equal Rights = Equal Responsibility just give me poached eggs and hold the rules
Imagination is Free Separation - what effect on children, who to love Mum or Dad?
Leave your Mark our enduring worth
Love is Stronger than death how love is timeless and forever
My New Best Friend is your button in the "Press Here to Start" position?
Timing is Everything how do we know when the time is right?
NEW To Have or Not to Have is that a question?
My New Best Friend
...is your button in the "Press Here to
Start" position?
I was standing in the supermarket checking out some dodgy green figs trying to decide if they were a good bet when a lady beside me with a shopping trolley asks: Those rockmelons look green don't they? I'm thinking I'm not the best person to ask as I don't have a clue what I'm doing but say, sincerely: Um, I'm not sure - what do you think? So we discuss the pawpaw next to it and the merits of eating pawpaw mixed with sugar and chopped mint which, when soaked overnight, my new BF (Best Friend) advises is: Yummy.
I ask, hopefully, what she thinks about the figs and she states: Don't eat figs. I smile and say: James Bond eats fresh figs with black coffee - did it in one of his movies (walking through the streets of Corfu in 'For Your Eyes Only'). They're supposed to be good for you. BF agrees: Yes, they're good for you. We stand in silence undecided about our options. BF starts talking about problems with her leg, pulls one trouser leg up and shows where she fell over and did a nasty injury. It's bugging her that after a year of surgeries and doctors taking bits off here and there and sticking them on her leg she has a lot of pain. Truthfully, it looked really nasty. When they kept chopping bits off her she told them why don't you just take me - says she's not sure why she's alive. I look at her and say sternly with a smile: "If you're not dead yet then you've got something you need to do." I know she doesn't want to hear about other people who wish they had what she has - that she can walk and talk - she knows all that - she's not ungrateful she's alive - she's just kinda asking out loud the question: Why am I still here? A lot of people ask this when they're a lot younger than this old girl. I've asked myself that question many times kinda like: What should I be doing/focussed on next? It seems I'm meant to achieve a goal and a purpose and then there's always a "What's Next" around the corner.
Back to my new BF. She says again: "I don't know why I'm not dead?" She's asking a question. I look in her eyes - one of life's moments of truth - in the middle of the supermarket chaos around us - fortunately no-one around us wants a fig, melon or pawpaw so we silently look at each other - she with her question and me looking inside the memory banks of my mind and heart for a hopeful response. All I can think of is a firm conviction: "If you're still here, you've got something else to do." I say that 'cause it's how I feel about whatever time I have left in this unpredictable and ever-changing life we live.
She looks inside herself and says: "I think I've found a purpose? Yes, I have" and pulls out something from a plastic bag she's holding. I recognise a little bundle of crocheted orange and brown wool which means nothing to me but means something to her. I listen as she explains: "I sew up the ends and the bit across the middle." It's a mystery to me. Then she crochets loops along the top and now it's a foot warmer (kinda like thick socks). She makes her woollen, handmade foot warmers in pairs for the old blokes in the nursing home at the end of her street for $2 a pair. I say: There you go - what a great purpose - keeping people's feet warm - a good thing with winter coming on. With a happy but hesitant smile she asks: Do you really think so? I look into the heart of this kind, usually laughing and humble woman and state: Yes, definitely YES! One of her blokes reckons he wants foot warmers in black or blue please 'cause he don't like orange and brown. I suggest: Maybe he doesn't want the other blokes to think he's dressed like a girl? She thinks out loud: Um, well, I could do them in black with blue on the end. Sounds good, says I. Black is definitely not her choice but BF will give it a go.
Comfortably dressed, she's wearing a large expensive diamond ring and a beautiful spray of diamond flowers pinned to her top. Not without money but careful how she spends it, she has qualities I admire and have learned from savvy business people over the years.
I see her formulating a new plan. She's thinking how fast she can get some black and blue wool for her new project giving warmth to the cold feet of the world - her world. I give new BF a boost of inspiration sending her off with these words:-
"The only thing we leave behind in this world is what we give to others -
what we put into their hearts and minds" ... (and on their feet?)
With tired and sore feet myself this week and attempting to push a rebellious shopping trolley, I'd been feeling sorry for myself until this little ole lady with a Tiger alive in her tank gave me the kick up the backside I needed. My internal complaining seems trivial compared to her pain. She's a gift from above, I suspect and a reminder that even when we don't feel like it we can turn on our "button" for a few minutes a day to deposit hope and love into the minds and hearts of others. Thanks God - Lucky that I had my button in the "Press Here to Start" position and was "good to go" at this particular moment on this particular Friday morning.
..."If you're not dead yet then you've got something you need to do."...Surfer back-flipping off surfboard at Snapper Rocks
I've discovered it's not what the world holds for you. It's what you bring to it.
Quote by Anne Shirley in "Anne of Green Gables - The Sequel"
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© 2012 Copyright www.aworkinprogress.com.au. Stories by Bev D. Photos by Graham D. Website by Bev D. The Authors, Graham and Bev, assert the moral right to be identified as the Authors of this work. No part of this website may be reproduced and published without the prior written permission of the Authors. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Copyright www.aworkinprogress.com.au. Stories by Bev D. Photos by Graham D. Website by Bev D. The Authors, Graham and Bev, assert the moral right to be identified as the Authors of this work. No part of this website may be reproduced and published without the prior written permission of the Authors. All rights reserved.