Notes from the Purple Bench

Do you ever have moments where you wonder if you are doing enough with your life? I do. I'm not a rocket scientist, nor am I a PhD working on the latest cure for cancer. And for the most part, I am satisfied with how I've participated in the career world and in my personal life. It's curious however, that I continue, now and again, to have these kinds of 'less than' thoughts.

My greatest accomplishment to date [according to me] may be summed up in two really nice human beings I birthed and loved into this world. Yet there are times when in the midst of people with impressive educational acronyms behind their names, a shadow is cast in self-doubt and reflection of what kinds of value I have contributed here during my time of Earth.

Why is that?

It seems, in America at least, the standards of success and value are wrapped up tightly in what we do as workers, how much we bank, what kind of car we drive and where we live. This is the short-list of those sort of markers of "making it."

And so I wonder...am I supposed to be doing more, being more, making more, buying more? Just yesterday I actually had one of those damn thoughts waft through my head!

And then something happened to stop me in my thoughts.

I carry a belief the 'Universe' can hear what we think, say, question and feel, and will respond [sometimes in record time] in-kind with some type of message. On the heels of my thought/question [am I doing enough?], I found a note from the Universe in the form of a yellow sticky wrapped around a music CD I had left on my purple bench for neighbors to take, the one that sits on the city parkway for my neighbors to take a load off during their neighborly strolls.

I had just decided the day before to begin a collection of photographs of the bench. I occasionally see neighbors sitting on the bench, but more often I only know someone has been there with the obvious shuffling of pillows rearranged for each person's individual taste and comfort. Evidence that someone has been there when I wasn't looking. I snapped the first in the series and walked over to the bench to see if the CDs had all found new homes.

There were two remaining out of the original five and oddly one of them had a note attached. Strategically wrapped and tucked into the CD sleeve to keep it from blowing away, here is how it read:

"Hello Sweet People on the Corner. I really enjoyed listening to this CD. Thank you for sharing your positive energy and for also making this a happy corner in the neighborhood. My daughter and I come by every day on our walk. Thanks! Noelle & Grace."

A blanket of warmth ran over my heart as it grew exponentially with the reading of the note. This 3" x 3" yellow square a prime example of what money does not buy, the priceless value of humanity working at its best and a note from the Universe [and the purple bench] that I am enough, I am contributing something of value and making a difference here on Earth.

I've also decided that my curriculum vitae [the course of my life] may need a little rewriting to include a section titled, "Notes from the Purple Bench." Signing off to write a note back to Noelle & Grace and post it on the telephone pole.