today is the day...to walk together. (an action post.)

High school.  It doesn’t matter if it was five days or five decades ago, it seems like just yesterday and a lifetime ago all at the same time.   Remember the guy who got picked on all of the time?  Was it the guy who wore his backpack over both arms and leaned forward when he walked talking to himself every second of the day?  Or the girl with the crooked glasses who broke out in a sweat when she accidently looked anyone in the eye? 

Was it you? 

The bigger question is what did you do to support or empower or protect that kid?  What did you do that helped to change the course of that person’s life? 

My friend Dan came into my office the other day and sat down to talk about a project we are working on together.  But somehow he started talking about a kid named Ricky Jones.  He smiled when he said his name and he did that thing that most of us do when we are remembering someone, he tilted his head and his eyes drifted in the direction of a memory. 

He told me about the long days for Ricky Jones, the ones that almost killed him. 

Ricky had been an outsider ever since he was a little boy.  His parents were odd and had pretty major issues of their own, so Ricky didn’t really stand a social chance.  He was that kid who waited at the bus stop in silence and didn’t dare try to engage with anyone.  He loaded first in line, sat in the front and got off immediately.  He went straight to class and never looked forward to seeing a friend…because he didn’t have any.  He hurt inside, but never cried a tear in front of anyone. 

He was afraid that if he did, the others would attack like desperate lions suffering a famine. 

Ricky made fine grades.  Rickey never caused a problem for any teachers.  Ricky was never late for an appointment.  But he will never look back on high school with fond memories.  He isn’t going to accidently stumble upon his prom pictures or his superlatives or his letter jacket and remember “the good ole’ days.”  He doesn’t have any of those. 

But he will remember that Tuesday in April when Dan, the guy he never talked to but knew from a distance, stuck up for him. 

A couple of the high school jerks…oh, come on now, you know exactly the guys I am talking about.  We might not call them by the same name, but they were those guys.  You know them as well as I do.  Anyway, a couple of the high school jerks were walking behind Ricky in the hallway on the way to class.  They weren’t doing anything horrible in the sense that they weren’t touching him or throwing anything or harming him physically, but they were beating him up mentally.  Ricky kept walking straight ahead, just hoping to get to class or run into a teacher or disappear in a cloud of smoke until the end of the day. 

But that hallway magically got longer and longer.

He looked down the row of lockers praying for the harassment to stop.  And out of nowhere, Dan turned the corner.  Dan was athletic, but not a super jock.  He was good looking, but not homecoming king.  He was well liked, but not class president. 

He was a normal guy. 

The next few moments were blurry for Ricky.  No words were spoken.  The language was in eye contact and body language.  Dan stared down the jerks and the jerks somehow got broader shoulders and stood their ground.  Silence hung in the air and was heavy and thick and scary.  But Dan did something that surprised Ricky.  As Ricky and the collection of jerks got closer to where Dan was walking, Dan stopped.  He turned around and started walking with them.  He stayed close to Ricky, and even closer to the jerks.  And no one said anything.  He was a wall of protection and Ricky not only made it to class, but it made it through high school.  Something changed for him that day and no one ever picked on him again in the same way. 

Dan changed Ricky's life when he stopped walking away and started walking with him.

You could see the satisfaction on Dan’s face when he was telling me about this moment.  But what made his smile bigger was when he told me that he recently ran into Ricky.  They’re older now - like have grandchildren that are out of college older. 

But after the niceties and typical haven’t-seen-you-in-awhile exchanges, Ricky kind of leaned in and said, “You know, Dan, when we were younger you were the only person who was ever nice to me.” 

Ricky extended his hand.  The two grown men shook goodbye. 

And then Ricky turned around and started walking with his wife of forty-some years, holding hands, happy. 

~ today is the day...for you ~

Today is the day to stop what you are doing and walk with someone who needs it. 

~ how to ~

We all have someone in our life who could use the reminder that we are “right here.”  Who is that for you?  Today is the day that you are going to reach out to that person to tell them that no matter how difficult the divorce, how dreadful the illness, how tight the money, how ugly the reality…you are right here walking next to them.

 

You can do this in a number of ways:

·         Send a note

·         Ask them if you can come over and make dinner with them

·         Run errands for them or maybe even together

·         Compliment them in front of other people

·         Take care of something for them – their children, their yard work, house cleaning

Know that your actions, your words, your time may change someone’s life without you even knowing it.  It’s easy to think about doing these things, but we let life and pride and fear of doing something different get in the way. What we need to remember is that everything we do affects someone else.  Everything we do touches people around us in one way or another. 

How will you touch someone's life today?

  

I hope that you'll become a part of this experience & decide to follow today is the day as we take our best of intentions & put them into motion to see what big difference our little actions can make together!

Feel free to post your experience here or email me at tinaattodayistheday@gmail.com.

Don't wait too long. After all...today is the day!