Moonflowers and a Loss

My parents gave me the book "Conversations with a Moonflower" by Christine T. Hall for my birthday/mother's day since I get to celebrate both of them at the same time so I am not sure which occasion it was for. I read this book in just a few days and it was just what I needed. The book is about a lady who received a flower from an Amish friend called a Moonflower. The flower looks like a weed, but it produces beautiful blossoms at night and not during the day. The flower is beautiful, but many people would think that it was a weed and wouldn't think twice about it. This lady took the flower home and planted it and once people saw what the flower did they loved it and would gather at their house everyday to watch it bloom at night. As this lady would sit and watch the flower she would get impressions about life which is what she wrote the book about.

The first lesson she learned was judging. She was at the grocery store one day and ran into a friend that she hadn't seen for awhile. This friend asked her why she had a bench in her front yard that was facing her house. The lady explained that people would come to her house to watch this flower and they got tired of moving the bench to watch it so they just kept it there. The lady said that her and her husband thought she was crazy for having a bench facing the house, but now they know why. The lesson was to not judge people. While sitting by the plant this is what was said "Do you ever make judgments about people when you don't know the whole story....How many times do you think your opinion would be different if you really understood the reasons why people do the things they do?" "It's hard work to always try to see the bet in others, to try to un derstand them and accept things they do. There is much about others you don't know anything about--- experience from their lives that have shaped their thinking and habits. If you could have insight into their lives, into their thoughts, fears, concerns, and insecurities, you would find that you could truly empathize with them, and many of your opinions would soften. When you meet people who do things or think differently than you do, it's easy to assume that your way is the better way, but that isn't always true. Many situations require us to make absolute judgements about what we believe is right and wrong, but so much conflict in homes and neighborhoods comes from not understanding that there are many right ways of living and doing. There are a lot of people who have a bench that faces their house, and when you find out why, it will make perfect sense."

 I recently had an experience at work where I had an employee come up to me and ask me to go and help with an unruly customer. I approached the customer and tried to get them to calm down enough so that I could help them. She was very rude and was upset that we would not open the photo lab for her to print off her pictures. She needed then right then but the lab was closed and we could not open it until the next day. She was VERY upset and I tried to calm her down. I was not having any luck and decided to call an assistant manager to help me. He was not having any luck either and we were both very frustrated with this because we could not get anywhere with this lady. We both thought she was a b****. After about 30 minutes of frustration the lady finally broke down and just sobbed in front of us. I didn't know what to do and felt like I needed to do something for her, I finally put my arms around her and gave her a hug. She explained to us that her husband had just died and that his kids were treating her very badly and were accusing her of horrible things. I then listened to her and helped her out and finally got her to calm down and explained to her what we were able to do to help her. My assistant manager came up to me later on and thanked me for helping her and told me that he was very impressed with how I handled the situation. I later felt bad for judging her the way that I did and realized that we don't know what is going on in people's lives for them to do certain things.

That lesson really stood out to me along with many others that I will touch on in future posts. The last one that I learned is the next one that I want to talk about. The last part of the book this lady talks about how she thanked the plant for listening to her and for being her life and the plant responded to her by saying, "All I did was provide you with the reason to sit, unhurried, until you could remember who you are and what you have always known...Everyone needs to learn how to get answers to their questions. you have learned well that the answers don't always come as soon as you ask, but if you wait patiently, the answers will come. When people are ready to learn, when they are ready to ask, when they are ready to listen, their teacher will come."

This reminded me a lot about prayer and our Heavenly Father. Our Heavenly Father knows all of us. He knows what we need and he knows our thoughts our everything. He will listen to us and he will answer our prayers. We need to listen both with our spiritual ears and our natural ears. We need to wait patiently and paying attention to things. Our answers don't always come the way we want them to come, often they come quietly and if we don't pay attention we can miss the opportunity. These things come in perfect order and in perfect timing for each of us individually.

Josh's mom passed away early Monday morning. It wasn't expected and it wasn't something that we were prepared for. She was a wonderful lady and always had nice things to say about others. She allowed people to express their opinions and listened to each and every one of us. She offered advice that was truthful even if it was something that we didn't want to hear. She loved each of us unconditionally. Each of us has faults and she knew that but she always gave us the benefit of the doubt and still loved us. She will be missed by so many people but I KNOW that I will see her again.