Good Karma

As I made my way to work this morning, after dropping the kids off at school and waiting in an unending line to get out of the high school parking lot, I made my way onto the highway near County Line.  Just as I was getting up to speed, I noticed a car pulled on the side of the road, and two people were starting to get out.  At this time of day, the highway is BUSY and it is a bit scary to pull over and get out of your vehicle.  As I began to pass the car, I noticed it was a very elderly couple who was getting out and it made my heart sink.  I was still driving, thinking there probably wasn't much I could do, but still I felt sick at the thought of someone hitting them or if they ended up stranded there for an extended period of time.

So, I made my way over to the side of the road and then had to drive in reverse along the side of the road until I got within range of their vehicle.  I got out and approached them and asked if there was anything I could do.  Obviously, I'm no mechanical genius, but I told them I had a phone and could call someone or could give them a ride if they needed one.  I was even thinking I could call my husband, who IS a mechanical genius, and he could come help them. 

The man explained that he had been driving and that his car had begun to overheat and there was steam pouring out of the hood of his car that had left him unable to see.  When I asked if I could call someone for them, his wife offered that maybe she could call AAA and they could send someone.  So as she began to make that call, I stood there, wondering why I was standing there, thinking that I was doing nothing to help their situation, thinking that I should probably just go and call dispatch to send an officer to help.  The man was very sweet and blessed my heart a couple of times and thanked me for stopping, but I really felt like there wasn't much I was doing to help. 

Then as I stood there, I remembered the messy car that I had been lamenting just moments before and that there were probably about a half dozen water bottles filled with various levels of water and asked him if that would help.  He said yes and I walked back to my car to collect as many water bottles as I could find.  I walked back with about four plastic bottles of water and my own personal water bottle and handed them to him one by one as he filled his coolant reservoir (seriously, I am not a mechanic, is that what those things are called?), that had been bone dry before.  As he finished filling up the tank, he blessed my heart again, and as he stood there looking at me, he said, "You know, I helped out a woman who was having car trouble who looked just like you over thirty years ago."  He thanked me again, told me that he thought they could get to a service station now.  I wished them luck and got back in my car and was back on my way to my routine of life. 

As I drove away, I just thought it was cool what he had said and that when you do good things for people, good things come back to you.  I certainly didn't feel like I was much help, but in the end, just stopping and always having a messy car turned out to be a blessing to this couple and really helped me adjust my own attitude.  I went from worrying about stopping, being late for work, questioning why my car (and house) are always a mess to being grateful to be able to help someone (even though I was very inadequate help), thankful for those water bottles that roll around the floor of my car, and just kind of dazzled by the good karma that came from me stopping.  It was a good reminder to me to look around and be of service to others, instead of being wrapped up in my own little world so much.