painted gifts and gifts of the heart.

Over the next few days my posts will probably been at random times during the day.  I have a lot of orders to get out before Christmas (yay!) and am going to post when I get a chance.

This post is going to cover the last two days I missed staying up late painting (again, yay!) and then hopefully I will be back on track.

I'd like to say that these orders are more than just orders at this point.  I set a goal of how much I would like to sell for the Christmas season and I'm blessed to say that I'm incredibly close to reaching that goal!  I think this year will be the shop's best year so far!  There have been some pretty creative requests this year too.  Tartan plaid may be the most challenging yet but I'm looking forward to giving it a shot.

After work Tuesday I was running around town trying to find the glasses I needed to complete the orders I have.  Of course they aren't all at one store, that would be way too easy.  I took the wrong on ramp after leaving one of the stores and had to back track a little and had to get off on a different exit to try and reach the right interstate.  While sitting at a stoplight there was a man with a cardboard sign.  He was right next to my car and I did everything possible to not turn and look at him.  I can't even tell you what the sign said.  He was probably just trying to scam people right?  After what was probably no more than 30 or 40 seconds I noticed him moving out of the corner of my eye, walking down the line of cars behind me.  That's when I looked in my side view mirror. Then I remembered something I heard about being kind and generous to everyone, sometimes it may be an angel in disguise.  And then it hit me, angel or not, who was I to pass judgement and assume he was just out for the scam.  He could actually be in need.  Certainly I am not naive enough to believe that everyone panhandling is doing it with an honest heart, but it's not my place to say who is and who isn't just by looking at them.

At this point I reached in my wallet.  I'm not one to carry cash but I did have a little bit.  I pulled out $2 and watched.  He never did walk back my way before the light changed.  I kept thinking about that.  I'm blessed to not be in that situation.  Even if he wasn't out there with the best of intentions, I'm still blessed to not be in that situation.  Of course I know that I won't be able to give money each and every time, but would it hurt me to roll the window down sometimes? Or even make eye contact?  Isn't generosity one of the best gifts there is to the giver and receiver?  Who knows, maybe he was an angel that was sent there to teach me a lesson.