Have you forgotten something lately??? Have you remembered to look for your blessings? Or have you been “too busy”? Today I received a reminder that blessings are everywhere if we are looking. I was walking down the street in a neighborhood that would be considered impoverished, dangerous and unattractive. I noticed a young child, a girl who appeared to be about four years old, walking to her preschool with her crippled grandmother. The little girl stopped, bent over and struggled to stretch her arm through a fence to reach the only flower on the block, a single brilliant yellow dandelion. Alas, her arm was too short.

I watched for a moment as she struggled then walked away. Suddenly my body was sinking down, my arm reached the flower. I called her and she turned and ran toward me. I gave her the flower and she ran to her grandmother who had leaned her slight, crippled body against a bus stop as if to catch her breath. As the grandmother graciously received the flower, she bent toward the child and covered her with kisses. Such happiness I saw. It was an indescribably beautiful scene.

I could only thank God as I continued my walk. I was thrilled that he had blessed me with being a participant in such a blessing. I could not help but think about the blessings that we are given but often we miss because we are so “busy”.

There are all kinds of adages that remind us to take our time and savor our lives, but we usually spend more time talking about doing it than actually doing it. It may be overstating the case to say that this phenomenon is quite common among women of color, particularly my African American sisters. We certainly have a history of carrying a heavy load, although much of the load we have not always had control over. Maybe it is time that we take more time to evaluate our load. Maybe, just maybe, we could focus on working smarter and not always harder. History has consistently documented our ability and our success at working hard. It has also documented our achievements from working smarter. All I am suggesting is that we focus more on the smarter part. As we dwell in the Autumn of our Lives, we can afford to be more strategic about how we will spend our time. After all, we now have all the tools and if not, we know someone who has them. We have some knowledge and perhaps too much experience (smile). We have hindsight and foresight; let us work on our insight. Let us ponder and plan… so that we may enjoy and spread joy. It is time.

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