Yesterday, as we were headed home after carpool, I ran out of gas on the side of Highway 521. In my 20 years of driving, I have never had this happen before. My plan was to do carpool pick up and then get gas. We were really close. Just one stoplight away when we ran out of gas.
As soon as we pulled over (or rather rolled over) to the side of the road, there was a black truck that stopped on the other side of the road and asked if we were ok. I told him we had run out of gas. Without hesitation, he said, “I’ll run go get you some.”
As we waited, I started to notice the butterflies in the field and the clouds rolling in. I was planning to drive by those and get to what had to be done, homework, snacks, laundry, and preparing dinner.
When he came back with the gas, I asked him how he saw us. He answered, “I always keep an eye out for people stopped on the side of the road.”
Wow, I thought and wondered how many times I had driven past someone who needed help. He had set the intention to always keep an eye out and for us yesterday it made all the difference.
It is so easy to drive by our lives. So easy to keep moving to the next thing and miss butterflies in the field and clouds rolling in. It’s even easier to drive by people who are in need.
What if we started with this mindset, “I always keep an eye out for people?”