One year ago this week, as the President of my local Homeowners Association, I received a note from an irate neighbor asking me to take some action on a covenant violation in the neighborhood. I stopped by the home of the reported violation to speak to the home owner, and then briefly went by the home of the neighbor who reported the issue. I told him that I had addressed the issue. I told him the issue was taken care of (a golf cart left out in view of the public versus placed in the garage). I told him that “life was too short to get hung up over small stuff like golf carts” but reported that I had “done my job”.
As I walked home, I stopped briefly to talk to two Public Works employees who were repairing some broken concrete in our neighborhood. I asked the man what would be the best time to come back by and put my hand prints in the concrete. I said as kids we all wanted to put something on the planet to remind people we had been here. He said, “Come back in 1 hour and I will never tell!” I laughed and thanked him for the opportunity to be remembered by my neighborhood!
Ten minutes after I arrived back in my house four doors down from where I had talked to the Public Works man, I heard screaming sirens of 3 fire trucks, 2 police cars, 1 rescue unit and 1 ambulance. They pulled up right in front of the sidewalk where the repair was being made.
Our dear 80-year-old neighbor had come outside to work in his yard and was talking to these Public Works employees while they all worked outside going about their duties.
In mid sentence, he collapsed of a massive heart attack. The Public Works employee ran over to my neighbor and had his work-assistant call 911 to ask them how to perform CPR. He told the Emergency Operator that the man had no pulse.
The 911 operator instructed them on a step-by-step procedure for CPR. I raced back down the street and watched the Public Works employee work frantically as he tried valiantly to bring my neighbor back to life. This unassuming, but good natured worker was being called to perform a much higher role in that moment…saving a precious life!
The Emergency Squad was there is less than five minutes from the time of the 911 call and they were able to do a radical procedure to get my neighbor’s heart going again as they rushed him to the hospital.
As the ambulance sped away, I walked up to the once affable man whom I had just joked with not 10 minutes earlier about concrete sitting on the porch overwhelmed and crying about what he had just done. I told him that he had been placed there by a Higher Authority that day and that he was our Community Angel!
I also told him that HIS HAND PRINTS in our neighborhood would be with us much longer than mine could have ever lasted in the concrete…because his was permanently imprinted in our hearts that day.
Because my ailing neighbor was alone at home that day, I decided to follow the ambulance to the hospital to stay with him until the authorities could locate his wife. I walked straight in to the Emergency entrance and went and sat with my neighbor while we waited for his wife and the children to arrive.
As I stood over my neighbor, a nurse walked in an asked me if I was family. I did not hesitate to say “Yes, I am!”
She asked me how I was connected to him and I told her that I lived four houses down from him. She said how nice that was that his relatives lived so close by. I said, “I am not blood related….but I am his neighbor”. She said, “I am confused, you said you were family”. I said, “I am, we are all family…we just don’t share the same blood.”
She smiled and walked out.
My neighbor was all wrapped up in heavy blankets trying to get his awareness and body temperature back and I asked the nurse if I could hold his hand.
She smiled and said, “…as long as you are family!”
I held his cold and still hand and when the nurse walked out I began to pray aloud for him as he lay there still in and out of consciousness.
Just then, a different nurse walked in and saw me praying. She asked me if I was his Minister.
I thought for a second and said, “Yes, I am!” She said, “You sure got here quickly!” I told her that I lived in the neighborhood. The other nurse returned in that moment and said, "This man is whatever this poor soul needs him to be today!"
I realized at that moment that sometimes we are all given the opportunity to be exactly what our Creator needs us to be. A neighbor, a friend, a nurse, a minister, and a son, but most of all….. a loving global family.
Sometimes we are all called, like our fine Public Works employees, to become Instant Angels…..
We are indeed living in dynamic and extraordinary times!
We must all be prepared to be whatever we are called to be to create and participate in instant miracles and be ever mindful of our constant calling to “love thy neighbor as ourselves”.
What might you be called to be today, and can you shed your normal exterior role to become the highest role needed in that moment?
We are each precious and our life's circumstances sometimes dictate that we be what our Source calls upon us to be to honor the sacredness of life. If you don't believe me, just ask the brave Publics Works "concrete smoother" who became a CPR Expert instantly and a "life saver" on this incredible day!
I say, follow your heart and allow incredible miracles to WORK THROUGH YOU in these powerful and “thoughtless moments” of DIVINE COMPASSION for your fellow man!
Hal Price is a Certified Professional Empowerment Coach, a Certified Conscious Language Facilitator, an Inspirational Speaker and Master Numerologist. He recently became a Professor of Spiritual Counseling for Akasha University of Metaphysics.