You never know

As all my followers (heeheehee) may remember, I was a Juvenile Probation Officer for many years before I gave it all up to be a massage therapist. Some would say that that was a really stupid idea. And when I sit down to pay my bills I think those people were probably right. But I believe there is a shelf life to most things; relationships, friendships, jobs, cheese (I found a piece in the back of the fridge that had gone beyond that shelf life...not pretty.) And the shelf life of the Juvenile Department job had expired.

One of the frustrating things (let me emphasize "one") about that job was that you never knew if you were doing one bit of good. You seriously had to have faith that you were doing the right thing even if many people were yelling at you telling you that you were Satan and you should just go back to Hell where you belonged and leave their poor child alone...."He's a good boy!" But you didn't cave..you couldn't and you told yourself that someday they would thank you. Ha. Those somedays never come. And yet, the other day it was someday.

My new phone rang (I'll have to write another blog on how a new touch screen cell phone can ruin your life) and I saw that it was a call from California. Contrary to my regular habits, I answered it. It was a man's voice telling me his name and asking if I remembered him. After I made sure I heard the name right I said, "oh, I remember you!" Mac was a kid on my caseload waaaayyyy back in the day. He's in his 30's now (gulp) and he called me to buy a massage from me for his mom who still lives in town. He said he googles me every so often to see what I am up to and found my website. I asked him why he does that and he said, "because you were a good influence on me when I needed it." Gulp again. I was touched. He went on to tell me that he is a musician...a rapper, and that he just finished a European tour. Wow! When I hung up I went straight to the research library of google and typed in his professional name. He was everywhere. Lots of videos on Utube..and I watched them. And I cried. I was really proud of that kid! Mac always had lots of personality and he was cute....and it looks like he coupled that with some hard work and made something of himself. That's all any of us Juvenile PO's ever wanted!!

I was touched that Mac went out of his way to call me....it was risky. He'd feel like crap if I didn't remember him. He may never know how much his call touched my heart. If you read this blog, Mac....thank you for that!

So the lesson here is that you do what you do with good intentions and faith. We may never know how much we have influenced another person. We all touch each other more profoundly than we realize. It's a strong power that we have to use responsibly.