MountainWings.com Issue# 1003
MountainWings - The Daily Inspirational E-Mail
Helping You Over The Mountains of Life
My wife asked me to pick up a prescription at the store for her tonight. She has
a cough and we are getting ready to go on a vacation for 4 days. I left work
after 7 and headed to the store.
It was crowded at the pharmacy counter. Both pharmacists looked harried and
tired after a long day and each customer in the makeshift line didn't look any
fresher. I stood there about five minutes in a line that really was no line at
all.
My wife's prescription had been called in but most of the folk waiting in line
had their prescriptions called in. There is nothing to try your patience like
waiting in a seemingly slow moving line.
I started smiling.
Why? I can't exactly answer that. I just did.
I started thinking.
First of all, I wasn't sick. Not that I was gloating or being condescending,
I just realized that every person getting medicine was more than likely sick
with something. It was a blessing just to be well.
Secondly, I wasn't in a hurry. How many times do we hurry up and wait? We rush
rush rush when we really don't need to. If a person in front of us takes more
than 3 seconds to go when the light turns green, we get upset. We rush home to
relax and have to spend an hour trying to unwind from the rushing that saved us
two minutes.
Well, I just relaxed while standing in line.
So I smiled.
Third, I felt the mountaintop.
I realized all over again (each situation in life grants you the opportunity)
that the mountaintop is really not a physical place, it is a state of mind. When
Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I've been to the mountaintop" he wasn't
talking about an actual mountain. He was in the midst of struggle and rocks and
hate mail and jail. He was talking about a state of mind.
He could stand on the mountain even in the midst of struggle.
He could stand on the mountain even with rocks thrown at him.
He could stand on the mountain with venemous calls and hate mail daily. He could
even stand on the mountain - sitting in jail.
So I smiled.
My smile got so big and obvious that the lady behind the counter beckoned to me
and said, "what's the name?" "Bronner" I replied. She
immediately went and got the prescription even though everyone else was there
before me. She then brought the lady's prescription IN FRONT of me.
The lady in front of me turned to me and said, "being around you must have
brought me favor." She recognized that she had been there for a long time
before I got there and still had not been able to get her prescription and
suddenly both of us had our prescriptions ahead of the crowd. I knew she had
been there a long time because I had heard her mumbling angrily in line. She
sensed something out of the ordinary had happened.
I tell you this to remind you that life will always present to you the
opportunity for the mountain or the valley. Always understand that among animals
and man far more live in the valley than on the mountain and you do have a
choice, even if you feel you are sitting in jail.
And there really may be someone throwing rocks at you.
It wasn't so much that the pharmacist saw me smiling or recognized me. She saw
me standing in a place where the crowd wasn't. She saw the mountain.
Even if they are throwing rocks, remember,
The higher you are on the mountain
The harder it is to get hit.
Now just close your eyes and feel the cool fresh wind of the mountain
And don't forget to smile.
A MountainWings Original
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See you tomorrow.
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