With Reasons
What are your reasons for doing the things you do?
At Andrews Community Center, waiting for the meeting to begin, a woman sitting in front of me complains.
“Clarence,” she rants. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I have a damn good job, well paid too. I have no children and a guy who adores me. I have a mortgage-free home, and I am also debt-free. Why can’t I hold my life together? God knows I tried.”
The male beside her to her right asks, “What do you want from life?”
“I don’t know?” she answered in frustration.
“That’s the problem.”
She glared at him with knotted brows and added, “Say what?”
He reaches out and pinches her on her left side.
Screaming out in pain, hitting him on the head, she demands, “Why did you do that?”
“Why did you scream out?” he asks, caressing his head.
“Because you hurt me,” she replies, massaging her side.
“How did you know I was hurting you?” Clarence challenged.
She curved her head to him with a look of surprise, then asserted, “Because I felt the pain.”
“Reasons Judy,” he continues. “You need a reason to put your life together. And right now, with all that you have, you don’t have a good reason to want better.”
“You are not making sense, Clarence,’ she announced in annoyance, grabbing the attention of other persons.
He bent to an older lady to his right a few seats away and queried, “Miss, what is one thing you wanted that you got lately?”
Her smile adds light and warmth to the atmosphere, and she relates, “My granddaughter dreams of going to college, but we can’t afford it. I am too old to work and help her. A high school teacher lives a few houses down from us, so I babysit her kids for free, and she tutors my granddaughter, helping her get a high SAT score. Thus, acquiring a scholarship to a college of her choice.”
Other persons join in the conversation.
A man with gray hair adds, “My wife needs physical therapy. Our insurance limits the number of sessions she can get. I am a retired landscaper, but I do work for a physical therapist, and she gives my wife the extra therapy she needs.”
A young lady shares, “I hate my no future, no prospect, dead-end minimum wage job. So, I am in college part-time to be a Registered Nurse.”
Someone congratulated her.
A young man in a wheelchair joins in, “I lost the ability to use my legs five years ago, but I don’t let my disability prevent me from living. I learn a new skill. I am a System Analyst for Microsoft, and I volunteer as a basketball coach at this community center.”
Clarence enlightens, “Reasons, they all have a reason for doing what they have done. And damn good ones too.”
“Now I understand,” a female voice to the left said.
All eyes follow the voice, and she went on, “My son is doing ten years in prison for killing his son’s abuser.”
Clarence counsels, “we are species that must do everything for a reason. Many of us can reason with our reasons, and some act or follow their reasons. Sometimes the results are good and other times not good. Unfortunately, sometimes we follow it to the wrong place. Like her son, who acts on his reason.”
Then Judy affirms, “So I must have a reason to put my life in order.”
Clarence twisted back to her and insisted, “Girl, you have more going for you than everybody I know and all of the people in here. If you can’t find a reason on your own, life will find one for you. The only problem is you might not like the decision life makes for you.”
Judy sighs, then release, “Years ago when I had nothing, life decisions were much easier for me. Now I have the resources most people dreamed of, and I can’t make the right decisions to better my life.”
The guy in the wheelchair needled, “What makes you happy?”
She stares at him, but her thoughts were far away.
He continues, “Go back to the happy point in your life—a point when your life has a meaning and a purpose. You will find value there. Then decisions will be easier. That is if it’s happiness you want.”
Swaying her head in his direction, her face lights up with a mixture of understanding and relief. She agrees, “You are right. I had a little, but I was happier.”
Clarence comments, “You will find your reason there.”
Humans’ existence relies on doing things for a reason, good and bad, animals too. I find that by doing everything in my life for a reason, a good one, I am left with almost no regrets.
What are your reasons for doing the things you do?
Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.
About the Creator
Annelise Lords
Annelise Lords writes short inspiring, motivating, thought provoking stories that target and heal the heart. She has added fashion designer to her name. Check out https: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtisticYouDesigns?
for my designs.
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