Moved to Action

Some years ago, a close friend of mine lost her husband in a tragic accident.

I was able to fly down and be with her during the planning for the funeral, and a few days afterward.

A while after I had been back home, it was laid on my heart to send her some "just thinking of you" flowers.

When I picked the delivery date, it was the earliest option available.

When she received them, she let me know right away how touched she was I remembered it was his birthday.

My heart stopped for a second.

I hadn't remembered his birthday.

I am embarrassed to admit, I had never really known his birthday, facebook had always reminded me.

I truly didn't know.

I had been moved to send flowers and I did it.

It ended up being delivered on a meaningful day.

How often are we prompted to do something in our hearts that doesn't seem to have a specific reason?

I know it has happened to me several times.

Often, it ends up being a moment like this one with the flowers.

Meaningful, and for a purpose.

I could write a small book on the moments of being moved to do something that led to something I couldn't have predicted.

Sometimes it is something that feels uncomfortable or without purpose, but if we get used to responding to it, we might find our lives having a greater impact on others.

One time, I felt moved to reach out to someone I didn't really know and simply say hi.

I hesitated as I didn't really know her, had only met her once, but the feeling persisted.

When I reached out and said hi, she responded immediately and I learned she was struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts.

I didn't know her at all.

I didn't know her story or even where she lived. We shared a long chat and keep in touch to this day.

Had I ignored that prompting, what might her day have been like?

As I said, I could write a book about all the moments like this, where I have either been moved to do, or been the receiver of someone else responding to a prompting.

I won't write them all, but instead leave you with this one:

When we moved into our current home, the neighbors brought over a photograph and a little "welcome to the neighborhood" card.

When I opened the gift and saw the framed photograph, I fell to the floor in tears.

The photo was of a double rainbow over our house.

They said it had been so beautiful that day they saw the rainbow, they just had to take a photo.

They told me later it felt silly to give it to new neighbors as a gift, but just felt they should.

The date on the photo, was the date of my Dad's funeral.

The reason it made me react so strongly wasn't just the date, but the rainbows.

When Dad died, there was a double rainbow outside his room.

The day of his funeral there was a double rainbow, all day.

Double rainbows have shown up several times since, on momentous occasions and have strong meaning for me.

These sweet neighbors and been moved to give a gift that felt a little silly to them, but was so meaningful, it is still framed and up in my living room.

It would be easy to ignore those promptings, those feelings of needed action, but then we could miss out on so much!

This is what being moved to action can do.

Don't ignore those promptings.

Be moved to action.

Comments

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