The Best Gift...

On my way to a holiday luncheon for work... I never wear red but I did today.
I was cutting it close time wise, but stopped at Walgreens to grab mints (close talking) and to pick up a card. While waiting to get checked out at the photo counter, I overheard the photo clerk at one of the computers with a customer who was trying to print her photos. She was an older woman with beautiful white hair... she sat frustrated at a computer, phone plugged in, trying to simply get her photos onto the computer to have them printed.
I listened to the store manager explain because of the way Apple stores photos, some of them wouldn’t load onto the computer there so he couldn’t have them printed for her.
She asked why, he explained the same issue again.
She asked what else she could do, he gave her the same explanation with no alternative solution.
Frustrated, she said that she just was too old to understand technology and felt stupid.
I said, “I can help you. I’ll upload the photos online, from your phone, and you can print them right now. I’ll set it up so your phone remembers the account and you can do it this way going forward.”
She looked up at me with tears of frustration in her little eyes and said “you can?”
“Hell yes I can!” 😂
She laughed at my insanity and maybe my language 😬
As I loaded the photos she talked to me about how complex the world has gotten (I heard her fear), she talked about technology and how she didn’t understand how it worked (I heard her fear), she talked about how she didn’t understand many things anymore (I heard her fear).
After loading the photos for her, I simply reminded her “over time, external things change but this is just an opportunity to be of service and to find connection with you. To remind me we all need each other. Opportunities to extend love might look different from when you were my age: technology vs helping your neighbor with their TV antennae or how to use a cordless phone.
Today was simply an opprtunity for me to be of service and give as freely as others have given to me. It’s not about what you do and don’t understand, your age, my age, technology ... it’s simply an opportunity for us to connect.
So thank you for not knowing how to upload your photos from your phone so that I could have this connection with you, what a gift for me.”
And that was it, a smile, a quick hug and onto my work event and she got her photos.
Just walking each other home.
Lucky me.
#Gratitude #Love #Connection #One