Friday, March 13, 2015

MY MIDDLE NAME IS BARNABAS

Today is March 13th, my birthday, and I have had the best week. I'm just beginning to realize that my ongoing themes are learning to love yourself, change without fear, getting along in your world, exchange anger and sadness for love, or remembering that we are all basically the same. When I sit down at my small, oak antique desk, I pull up Google Blogger, and sit there for a few minutes, thinking about what I want to say. I make myself write something within a few minutes, because writing and deleting and then re-writing gets the brain working for me.

Today's post was easy to decide and I thought of it in a restaurant this morning. My daughter-in-law wanted me to get my free breakfast at Denny's! I tried to get out of it - ha ha! - but that was not going to happen! Denny's is okay for an emergency stop while traveling - but it made her happy and we met a fabulous young guy. That was why we were supposed to go to Denny's today!! To meet Christopher. He is such a gentleman, polite and very charming. I told him so, because I have learned people need encouraging. I always like to interact with people I deal with, especially young people. Sometimes there is an immediate connection, and just going with it works for me. I also told him he was a catch, and very suave and debonaire! His face beamed with pride about the suave and debonaire part. How I came up with those words at that moment, I don't know, but I adore old fashioned words. He thanked me and shared that he is a new father, just got out of the Army, and he wants to start a business. He started telling us about an invention and his whole demeanor changed - he was excited and confident and his ideas came flying out with ease.

I asked him if we could exchange emails because I am also an entrepreneur at heart and have read hundreds of books on attitude and business acumen, and I might be able to help him. The least I could do would be to bring him a stack of books that would encourage him. I gave him a couple of suggestions asking if he had ever seen Shark Tank. Saying, when you give a presentation to a group of possible investors, you want to slow down a little bit, and keep the bullet points short and concise, giving the details later, typed up and thorough. He was thrilled and as we said our good byes, of course,  I asked if I could hug him.

Christopher served our country, was respected within his unit, even wished he could be deployed, rather than standing around trying to find work. Which was what he said he did most of the time.
He is now a new father and working a bare minimum job, and probably does not sleep much? You bet I am going to encourage and help him if I can. We just connected and he reminded me of my sons, he was intelligent, likable and I wanted to adopt him! Yes, the mom in me came out.

What is my point? I had a great day and was unabashedly myself - what a stellar word! My title says Barnabas is my middle name, but it really isn't. My husband once gave it to me, and it was a very sweet gesture. He said I was always encouraging people. If you like to google, like I do, you will see Barnabas means 'encourager'. Or better yet, if you have ever read the old testament, you will find Barnabas there. Son of encouragement. Thank you for listening!

Good night and God Bless!   Aleta

"Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!"
-Dr Seuss



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