Five Minute Friday: Person Prompt

So today the goal is to think about some person I encountered this week and write about him or her for five - and only five - minutes.  No crazy editing.  No backtracking, or rethinking, or questioning myself.  Just free-style writing.  Soooo.....here we go!


{START}

Why is the grocery store so crowded when I'm trying to fly through grabbing things willy-nilly off the shelves?  I dropped some things off at the laundromat and was trying to get everything I needed for my taco soup before the clothes would be ready for the dryer.  Therefore, there was NO TIME for actual interaction with other human beings.

I saw him as I was trotting down the soup isle looking for who-knows-what.  He seemed a little tired, a little worn down, maybe a little sad?...and more than a little confused.  I murmured some sort of greeting and he asked me if I knew where the  Campbell's Chunky Soup was.  Only he didn't know he was actually looking for Campbell's Chunky...he just knew the soup wasn't where it used to be.  I spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out what he needed and helped him find it.

...and rushed on my way.

Fifteen minutes later I'm putting my clothes in the dryer and there he was...chatting with some stranger in the laundromat, repeating what he had been saying to me about how things keep getting changed all around and why can't things stay the same.  Obviously the whole grocery shopping experience had worn him out.

I couldn't stop thinking about when I have another 20 years or so behind me... will I be shopping all alone and confused about where the familiar has gone?  I certainly hope the people I encounter are a little less hurried and distracted than I was with him. 

This week I'm asking God to help me to be kinder, slower, and less politely distracted with the actual living, breathing, needing people I encounter.

{STOP}

Have a lovely weekend, y'all :)
Renee