“It’s been a good life,” she said

I thought I’d continue the blogging. Today I went to our local grocery store to pick up Ray, me and Leah some fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy at the deli. They have a special recipe for their chicken, and every couple of weeks they have it on sale and have to cook 2 huge mounds of it from the people lined up to buy it. Yeah, it’s that good!

While I was waiting for our order, I heard a woman next to me order potatoes, and noted a deep southern accent. I turned to her and asked politely, “Excuse me, are you from here?”

She smiled and said, “No, I’m from the south. Arkansas.”

I replied, “I thought so. I heard the southern accent. I was raised in Georgia.”

She then amusedly said in that southern twang, “Well then” (pronounced like, “Waaaale thaaaan”), “we’re neighbors.”

Her name was Maxine, she wore a big happy smile, and I noticed she had a bright gold crown on one of her front teeth. She then told me how she used to live in Arkansas with her husband, who was a pilot with an airline and she worked for the airline, too.

I asked if she was a flight attendant, and she said, no, she cleaned the planes. After she cleaned the plane and got off work, she and her husband would travel all over the place together. (Employees of some airlines receive free flight benefits.)

“We didn’t ever have any chil’un (children),” she said wistfully. “But you know, you cain’t (can’t) have chil’un when you have a job travelin’ like tha-yut (that).”

She was a senior citizen. I asked if her husband was still a pilot, if he was still living. “No’m,” she said. “He passed away. I stayed in Arkansas awhile, went out with my friends to the park to go out sometimes. It was a nice park. Then ‘ventually (eventually), I moved here. But he and I really enjoyed traveling together. We had fun.”

She smiled and her smile was as bright and as big as the sun. She then said something that just struck me. “I’ve had a good life. It’s been a GOOD life.” She looked content, satisfied, as if she had no regrets…just a happy, fun life, traveling together with her husband.

We parted and I told her how nice it was to meet her. I enjoyed talking to her and wished I could have talked longer to her about her travels, her husband, her job. I left her presence a little lighter-hearted for the day, feeling as if God had just dropped a word from heaven into my spirit: Enjoy the trip.  Have fun.

What about you? Have you had a good life? Are you living a good life now?

If not, why not? What’s holding you back from it? When will you begin to have a good life and “enjoy your “flight”?

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