midnight fox

as i drive home from work, i often see a fox crossing the road or running by. i usually always slow down & stop because they are the cutest guys in the world. virginia has the beautiful red fox. he's so little with the tiny legs almost cat like with this bushy bushy tail. the perfect dog/cat mini mix. too adorable!

but then i get so sad, where does he go? where does the fox live? does he have enough room to run and play? obviously not because i see him dart by the road. does he have enough to eat? what is happening to his wild home? the urban sprawl guilt. development crushing the homes of all the creatures who always lived there.

this week, i saw a foxie and a person walking down telegraph with a black hooded sweatshirt and jeans. who walks the burbs at 1am?!?!?! so of course i quickly spin about to see if he needs some help with bobby's reaction flashing through my mind..."you did what??!!!" "kirst, you gotta be practical. you gotta protect yourself." but, of course i don't believe in any of that nonsense.

God protects me!

so i pull up to him and ask him if he's okay and needs a ride somewhere. he tells me he in fact does. that he thinks he might have sprained his ankle. but he lives about 3 min. up the road.

on a side note, which has nothing to do with my story i think it is rather odd that certain guys even try to ask you out while your in a car! as if on my drive home i would actually stop and yes, wanna give you my number and go out with you after you got my attention while driving and motioned me through a window. interesting....

back to my story: he gets in and we start talking and i learn he has been walking for an hour and a half!!!!?!?! break my heart saying he just, "tries not to think about it." even though it's raining! poor peachie. he is a student in highschool and missed his bus and has to commute way too long to school and to see his friends. but he is the sweetest boy ever and i am so glad God had me pick him up because the drive was indeed farther than 3 min. and he would have been walking for quite some time.

it amazes me the attitude of some youth. how positive and grateful he could be when others are self absorbed and busy complaining.

like when our plane was delayed, then broken, then delayed, and finally cancelled in maui and we were asked to spend the night in the airport until the following day.

some started yelling, using profanity, while others made the best of things.

one canadian family, a dad with his two daughters particularily caught bobby's and my attention. he got his girls set up with blankets laying on chairs while he laid on the floor holding their hand with his head resting on their pink mini suitcase telling them, "ohh, this is gonna be an adventure we have never had before!" then his wife came up to them, "honey what are you going to do about your insulin?" awww!!!

while nearby an american family, three high school age kids with their mother and father were yelling and swearing at their parents to get them out of the airport and buy them a ticket home! Obviously extremely wealthy and lacking on social manners they put on a show that would embrass the grinch.

my students often come to me with stories, "she said this to me, he looked at me like this, they did this to me, " etc. my reply is always the same. i am sorry. that is wrong! you do not deserve to be treated like that. please write up an incident report. you can't control other people, but you can control yourself and your emotions. it doesn't matter what anyone else says about you or doesn't say or do. you are special no matter what and no one can take that away from you. no one. it is yours forever. you are in control of you. you can choose how you will react. since we are celebrating black history month and did a discussion on MLK day, i asked some students how would martin luther king react? would he say all the things you are saying right now to their face and try to fight them? not on your life.

you have two choices. you can react with love or without love. you can let someone else stop you from being love or you can not let them get in your way of being who you are meant to be a person with integrity, compassion, responsibility, self discipline, and respect.

at times we make we choices without even thinking. we just act. but they are choices none the less. for there are moments when we see someone acting in love and they truly shine and a contrast is made between the light and the dark and know we are moved with inspiration by seeing their love light shine. glimpses of heaven in the mundane. the fire of God.