Today I am sharing a moving story written by Mark Mcintosh.
It was the early morning hours the day after my father’s quadruple-bypass surgery and I was the family sentry sitting with him during recovery. A wonderful nurse constantly checked on this 76-year-old warrior, who surgeons said, “Did great in the toughest surgery there is.” I sat there, occasionally slipping ice cubes into his mouth to counter an anesthesia-induced dry throat. Mainly, I just sat, read and occasionally dozed off.
I was reading Barack Obama’s, “The Audacity of Hope.” In his second book, the first-term Illinois senator talks about the challenges America faces, offers some ideas how to address those challenges and offers a glimpse of how his life experiences shaped his philosophy. The former law-school professor credits his success in large part to an enlightened mother, who would often ask Obama to think of others before himself. Apparently she would always wonder, “How do you think that would make him/her feel?”
So while Dad tried to sleep amid the clatter, buzzing and ringing of machines monitoring his recovery, I learned more about a 45-year-old politician who aspires to succeed George W. Bush and become our nation’s next president. Early in the book, while discussing values, the man who lived much of his childhood in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather talks about his maternal grandparents, especially his grandfather. The Harvard-educated Obama moved to Hawaii and lived with his grandparents during his high school years. Obama and grandpa fought often. Finally, the nation’s only black senator had an epiphany concerning constant rebellion to grandpa’s “outdated” discipline. Obama says, “I realized that abiding by his rules would cost me little, but to him, it would mean a lot.”
For whatever reason that really jumped out at me: “cost a little, but mean a lot.” It made me think, if we could apply that simple, but so often challenging, philosophy to our respective lives, could it lead to more harmony and success at home, in business and within our communities? At home for instance, if we adapted the “costs little, but means a lot” mantra maybe it would be expressed by a family dedicating itself to sitting down to dinner, TOGETHER each evening? In business, maybe the “costs little, but means a lot” would manifest itself as “employee of the week” awards for staff members who portray the spirit, resolve and creativity necessary for company success? In your community, perhaps the “costs little, but means a lot” would be revealed through shoveling the walk of an elderly neighbor?
It comes down to thinking of others before your self. There is a fine line here that we must -like the nurse caring for my Dad - monitor to avoid destructive enabling and co-dependency habits, but where might this week be a good time to reach out in a manner that “costs little, but means a lot?”
My thoughts of “cost little, but means a lot” are interrupted, Dad’s ready for another ice cube. Responding to that request cost little – rising from my chair – but I know from the resounding “aahhh” muttered, it meant a lot.
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Copyright © 2007 Becca Levie. All Rights Reserved. “Joy comes in finding and living your Life On Purpose.”—Becca Levie