Imagine along with me for a moment, will you? It’s 5:30 am and Michelle is showering for another work day. She’ll have to be dressed and waking up the baby by 6:15 am so that he can be fed, dressed and ready to head out the door with her by 7:30–drop off at daycare is 8:00 and Michelle has to be in the city to start work at 8:30 am. As she hurries and rushes she only has time for just a quick goodbye to her husband in the garage as he and the two older children pile into his car for the trip to school. Michelle knows that at 5:30 tonight the whole thing will start again–only in reverse. And her lingering thought as she pulls away from the day care is, “There’s got to be more to life than this.”
Then, there’s Amy. Yesterday, when Amy, a single mother holding a nice job as a medical assistant, picked up her 4-year-old son from daycare, she noticed a bruise and some scratches on his upper arm. At first he said another child had hurt him. But later Amy took a closer look. She saw the finger marks seemed to be too large for a child’s hand. Today she’ll be taking off to get a medical opinion and probably remove him from the day care centre. She can’t imagine how she’ll be able to trust someone else to babysit little Jack next week. She wishes she had some other option.
And how about Norma? She retired last month after 25 years with Westpac. During each of those 25 years she thought this was what she was living for–one year closer each autumn to her full retirement and the “good life.” But when she gets up in the morning, she has an empty feeling. Her days are filled with “busy work” but no real sense of accomplishment or fulfilment. And while she thought she’d be happy to get away from all those “backstabbing” women she worked with, she now longs for a friend and a purpose.
So, was it Michelle you smiled at in the elevator today–too scared to pull out a card and offer a facial? Was that Amy you sat next to in the doctor’s waiting room–but kept quiet because you didn’t want to “bother her?” Or maybe Norma is one of your customers, but you’ve decided she would never be interested in Mary Kay.
