Seeing Past What It Seems

I am not an email forwarder, I am not usually a link sharer but I can tell you, today at just the right moment I read something that touched me and so I am sharing it with you.

We Must See Past What it Seems…..

Go ahead, go read it. I will wait. Actually, if you go and you read it and you never come back for the rest of this post, you will have gotten what I wanted to share with you today.

Life, my friends, is not always what it seems.

I work with a girl who, by all accounts on the outside seems well put together. She shows up, she works, she lives a modest life and she has more financial problems than anyone can see from the outside. Her divorce ended badly, some debts that were supposed to be allocated to her ex-husband were in both of their names and even though the divorce decree says they are his, the debtors are coming after her. The courts answer, pay the debt and sue him. Sorry about your luck.

Yet I knew nothing about this until earlier today. All I knew was that sometimes I would see her cry. Sometimes, when she came back from the bathroom, or was in her cubicle, or in the copy room where she thought no one would see the tears would flow down her cheeks and her face would be all red the next time you saw her.

All of this, could have all too easily been me. Yet, until I asked this morning, I could have easily just assumed she was overly emotional. In fact, when another co-worker found out about this their reaction was she's still having problems? She needs money again? Oh, to be young and naive.....

Another girl offered her $20. Nothing much, just money to buy food. To eat, to live for the weekend and she cried. I'm sure tears of joy as well as tears of embarrassment. I remember having to ask, having to tell people, having to let anyone know that your life, behind the facade, is not what it seems.

So today, on my way back from physical therapy I took some money out of the ATM, put it in an envelope, and put it on her desk. She has no idea it was me, I have no intention of telling her. There are two other people in the office who know I did it, one because she is the one who told me about offering her money and the other because she sits right next to her, they have been sworn to secrecy. I do not want her to be embarrassed or feel like she owes me anything, I just want her to have it. It is not much but I know that she needs that money WAY more than I need to go out to dinner or to a movie this weekend. For her that money will be necessities, for me it will be luxuries. I can do with a few less luxuries in my week...

And then, almost by accident, I checked my spam filter and sitting in there, was an email with the link above. It was sent to me on Tuesday, I got it about 20 minutes ago. A sign from someone, somewhere letting me know that I did the right thing. That no one knows what secrets someone else may hide or what difficulties they may be facing and we need to remember to be gentle with other people. Their story may be more difficult than what it seems from the outside.