Pick the Beautiful Option (Real Life)

10.5.17

5 presentations before 11:30am at 3 different hospitals. Started at 5:30 am, got home at 7:30pm and was up last night anxious about them till 1:30am...

Finally got home, realized I need food. Go to Kroger and I'm still in my scrubs.

Check out in the Express Lane with my frozen pizza and wine. #single Taking forever. Feet throbbing, shaking bc I'm physically exhausted, and mentally wiped.

Then a man comes up behind me in line. Smiles at me. Says he remembers me being a nurse to him bc of my scrubs. He's about 75-80. I say, "haha, Sir-I can hardly heat up a pizza, let alone be a nurse--I'm just a rep," and he laughs and insisted on remembering me in some gibberish that I couldn't really understand.

During his laughter, he lays his 2 loaves of bread down and 1/4 gallon of milk and is fumbling to try to find his cash to pay...

I'm almost in tears bc I've seen about 3 people his age, about the same mental state, almost not making it today---and now he's gotta worry about finding less than 10 bucks to pay for bread and milk....which I know is a lot to him.

And he's all alone. Which I also saw a lot of today.

I tell the woman I'll pick up his tab quietly, almost in tears.

I just smile at him as he understands what happened, exchange a teary-eyed smile with the cashier, and quickly walk out the door, bc I'm about to freakin lose it...

I just guess that--I'm learning that there's a different path to pursue other than just right and wrong.

There's this whole other route.

It's something you do, that just brings you to tears afterwards.

It's feeling a sense of compassion that hurts your heart if you don't help.

I guarantee that if you respond in a way that's deeper than just the "right" thing to do---someone else's soul will be touched...and yours will too, in ways that you couldn't have imagined.

Jessie Fream