Everyone has a story, mine was a rough day

The rough day started at 1:15 a.m. when I woke up thinking I was dying and Brad woke up thinking that the A/C had broken. Both of our issues were caused by my 49 mg/dL blood glucose (non diabetics, that’s low). Having never experienced low blood sugar in the middle of the night it really freaked me out. Especially since I had recently read about a girl passing away in her sleep from low blood sugar.

That’s not really the way I like to start my day and it put me on track for a long, tired day. After work I had to rush through the grocery store and get home before the office closed to pick up my box from the medical supply company because I was completely out of test strips (I cut it too close this time).

When I was leaving the grocery store, I had a green light and needed to turn right. I noticed an elderly woman beginning to cross the street from the other direction and judged that the distance was safe enough not to startle her and turned. At which point she felt compelled to bellow, at the top of her lungs, “JERK!” at me. Because when you cross the road, you need all 4 lanes to yourself. (I am not a crazy driver, my turn was perfectly safe.)

If she knew what my day had been like maybe she wouldn’t have yelled at me. If I knew what was going on in her life, maybe I would have let my green light pass and given her the whole street.

I had just read this post on Kyle Lacy’s blog on that same rough day and watched the Chick Fil A video about every life having a story.

It kind of brings a sense of reality to everyday life. If we knew each others’ stories, would we act differently?

Probably.

After watching that video, I thought of the signs that could have easily been over my head in something like that. Especially the weekend that I was released from the hospital and lost my dad. There was so much in my own life that occupied my thoughts that it surely had to be visible to others.

Sometimes not knowing someone’s story and then being a genuine, kind humane being is enough.

On that same day, I got home to this email:

Rachel, you are a GENIUS!  I had no idea this was even an option until you mentioned it and just didn’t think it was possible!  Love you!

It was the nicest thank you email for the smallest recommendation in response to a question about Facebook.