I was putting the last of my things in the car while my
husband was checking out of the hotel in Erie, Pennsylvania. It was Father’s Day and we were headed home
from a sale we had attended in New York.
The beautiful morning sun made for a great start to the day
and while I was standing there waiting, a young dad came out and was loading
luggage into his pick-up truck. I said
good morning and then curiosity got the best of me and I asked about the
sticker on his back window. It said “NVR SMR.”
He encouraged me to guess, so I stood for a few minutes and
guessed the first one, never. And he
enthusiastically said, “Yes! You’re so close, you can do this!” And then I
blurted out “Summer! Never Summer!”
He said, “YES!” And then gave me a high five.
Of course the follow up question, “What does that mean?”
He told me it was a brand of snowboards and that he and his
family love winter and all the snow sports. We meandered down that path of
where he goes, how often he goes and that he and his family should definitely
go to the Rocky Mountains and enjoy real powder on real slopes.
He asked if I skied, and I proceeded to tell him about my one
downhill skiing experience with my dad in the Rocky Mountains in Montana. You remember, the one where we stood in line
on the bunny hill to get our one skiing lesson from the professional only to
have my impatient father say, “We don’ t need lessons, come on, let’s go get on
the chairlift and go up to the top.” Of course, I followed because if my dad
believed I could do it then I knew I could…. until I got to the
top. The chair lift dumped us off, and
I collapsed in a heap and started scrambling to get out of the way of the
people behind us getting dumped off. It
was literally all down hill from there and I never went again.
This total stranger obliged my story, laughed with me, noted
the confidence I had in my dad and we both recognized the importance of the
father role in a family giving his kids encouragement to try new things. He had
no idea that my dad had passed away or the enjoyment I received reminiscing
over a fun story I hadn’t thought of in years.
I will likely never see this man again, but I walked away
thinking how gratifying that five minute conversation was in the hotel parking
lot in Erie, Pennsylvania. That human
connection is exactly what we were created for as we traverse our brief time on
earth. Don’t waste the time you’ve been
given closing off the rest of the world, instead greet people with a smile, you
never know what you might learn or the blessing you will receive.
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