“Do me a favor,” Neal asked this morning, “take the door to the cabinet in and get a match of its stain for me?”
Easy enough. The morning flowed well. I had my prayer time, got the kids off to school and even divulged in my morning tea and Today show. 😉 Maybe it was seeing the coverage of the Steubenville, Ohio rape story or it could have been the heart-gripping story of the parents who forgave their daughter’s murderer (her boyfriend) for shooting her in the head and killing her while they were in a fight. They managed to forgive him the very week that the incident took place and even plead on his behalf for a shorter sentence. These were Saints before me. Both stories tragic. One yet to be resolved the other a great example of forgiveness.
At any rate I didn’t feel anger or frustration when I walked out the door this morning to do as Neal asked. I waited patiently in line at the local paint store for almost 30 minutes as there were only two people behind the counter and the people in line before me needed paint mixed, etc. I knew I would probably take up as much time so this time spent wasn’t bothersome.
I walked up to the counter, laid the cabinet door down and asked to get a stain to match.
“Do you have a piece of wood?” the clerk asked.
“Um, no. Why?” I responded.
“To test the stain to make sure it matches.” He didn’t look at me as he said this, instead he was busy typing something in on the computer.
“No, my husband didn’t mention to bring anything but the cabinet door. Can we use a paint stick?” I suggested.
“No,” again he replied dead pan and focused on what he was doing on the computer. “It won’t match up as well. What kind of wood is this?”
“I don’t know,” I replied starting to get irritated because he still wouldn’t stop what he was doing to be fully attentive to what I needed as a customer.
“Well, I can’t help you,” he said.
I’m in a paint store that supplies most of Kingwood’s contractors with paints and stains and this young man can’t help me find a way to match the stain on the cabinet just because I don’t have a piece of un stained wood?
“That’s it?” I asked. “After waiting patiently in line for over 1/2 an hour you are telling me there is no way you can help me? What if I said I didn’t care about using a paint stick to match?”
He shrugged his shoulders. YES! Shrugged his shoulders. “I could maybe find a piece of wood in the back but, yeah, I probably won’t be able to.”
I was dumbfounded. It was clear he didn’t want to take the time to help. There were five other people waiting in line and he didn’t want to take up that kind of time. So he basically said, ‘sorry’ no can do.
On my way home this project came to mind. For a brief moment I felt guilty for being so frustrated but then the more I thought about the situation the more I became frustrated. There was no reason he couldn’t have done the stain on a paint stick, or as Neal suggested once I told him about the whole debacle, to test it on the back of the cabinet. Regardless, that was his job and there could have been a solution to my problem.
The day is almost done and yet I still feel frustrated. Not necessarily over that incident. Neal will take care of that but I’m left physically feeling like I want to crawl out of my skin. Have you ever felt this way?
I can already see that this is one of those days that I need to be careful as I continue…maybe focusing even more on the little things that bring blessings and then sleep it off. 😉 Some times we just have one of these days…
Blessings
Shannon