Sunday afternoon and in the back of my mind I knew that I had goofed up again.  I had been given a subject for my writing group for Monday morning and it just didn’t stir me up at all.

The subject was “A Thanksgiving Prayer”. After the weeklong barrage of the airwaves of both TV and the Internet I was having a hard time with it.

You’d think in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave that words would flow freely to me. I have been blessed beyond belief with my life, my family, friends, material goods, and my own inner knowing that God is always wherever I am, and I can cope with most anything coming along. But writing about thanks seemed as if I had said all of the same things before. So I hadn’t picked up my pen, I just put it aside.

This afternoon we decided to go for a short ride thru out the Florida countryside. On the way back we were driving down Highway 98 thru Lakeland, 4-6 lanes, lots of stores on both sides, and lots of traffic. But there is a 3 foot section of pavement directly on the side of the road meant for bikes. To my horror I saw a small family, husband, young son, and a young mother pushing a stroller with a baby in it, walking on the narrow strip. Four people, about a foot from being struck by a car, making their way down the street.

I closed my eyes.  What if that were me, I thought, with 2 children, no car, and a husband, walking down the street, taking our life in our hands?

I said to Bob, I am so thankful that isn’t me, and then I realized that I had thought only of myself.

But maybe the woman was just being thankful she had a stroller and a way to go shopping.  Maybe she was looking at it in a different way than I had. Where I saw danger, maybe she was just happy they were together.

I learned another lesson today.  I prayed for her and for all people making the best of whatever situation they are in. And I prayed that we must never forget to watch out for everyone. It doesn’t matter if we don’t know them.  We must all just remember that we are here on this planet together. People, life is too short to forget our humanity.