So fortunate I am at times to have the opportunities to encounter men and women who continue to give hope for the rebirth of mindfulness. I’ve worked with a gentleman off and on for the past four years who was a Iowa public employee. He is somewhere around 80 years old. His brief stop at the office ever so often is short because he is usually on his way from or on his way to an errand. In the years that I have known him, the real striking feature about his character is that I have never found him to say anything derogatory about anyone. He always takes the high road and attempts to lessen the faults of others including even the naughtiest monkeys in our community. I’ve told him more than once that he is an angel in disguise. He just laughs at me.
Another example of people with soul is a most genuine woman whom I haven’t known very long but after my telling her a story today about some of the thievery that has taken place in North Iowa, she as well is another cut from that same stone. In my telling the story, she took a more self-less stand in saying, “If they would only just take what they wanted instead of creating destruction.” I told her today that she indeed has a gentle spirit.
I am not at that point yet but I am working at truly wishing and wanting the best for all. That doesn’t mean that we must give in and give up to those that want to take advantage of us. For me it is continuing to educate myself in taking a mindful stand in business transactions. Setting standards and sticking to them is the way we create a generally accepted way of doing business in our community.
This man and this woman I speak of today, are just two of many I know who live among us. Don’t chide them for being forgiving, congratulate them for having become the really beautiful people of Mason City and North Iowa.
