I Did Not Want To Pop Corn

All my life I worked in private homes. I interacted with the families I worked for, was involved in their lives and loved them. However, I was always facinated by the stories my sisters and friends would tell me about their waitressing jobs or any job they had working with the public, meeting all kinds of different people every day.

Tim and I were always very involved in other people’s lives, but they were mainly people from our church and community, people we already knew. What I am now getting to experience is a whole new world!

Finally, at 63 years of age, when we started this ‘side business’ of popping Kettle Corn, I get to experience working ‘with the public’ and I absolutely love it!

I have now joined the ranks of my sisters and friends. I could have a new story every time we pop, about the beautiful, downright interesting, colorful, happy go lucky, some too serious, and the very many cheerful people we meet. I am amazed at all the different personalities, cultures, and peoples of every kind we get to interact with.

The past few months, there has been so much negativity on the news and social media about people, because of all we've been through. There is outright disrespect towards others, the unrest, the political scene, disagreements about Covid, etc. It’s been a tough time for everybody.

 In the last few weeks we have had a spike of Covid in our area, so 90% of our customers are wearing masks again. The other day I started noticing something. I have been missing people’s smiles!

However, I noticed something else. Isn’t there a saying, ‘The eyes are the window to your soul.’ The eyes looking back at you over those masks can still smile at you, question you, look surprised, and still make working with the public fun and interesting. In spite of not being able to read lips anymore (Tim and I both have bad ears, so its been a lot of, ‘can you repeat that?’ going on) people’s eyes have been doing the talking!

A few weeks ago I stopped at Swamp Rabbit Tees to order new T-Shirts for Crazy Good Kettle Corn. The shop owner had a T-Shirt on display that caught my eye immediately. It said; 

‘You will never look into the eyes of someone God does not love.’  It spoke volumes, especially the times we are living in right now.

About a week later Tim’s brother Mike and his wife Ruby stopped at the Farmer’s Market to see us in action.

While shopping, they came across Swamp Rabbit Tees and seeing that T-shirt, Ruby loved it and bought one. A few days later, there was a picture on Facebook of her daughter in law, Krystal, wearing it along with a big smile!

 I also loved the scripture verse Krystal posted with it: Colossians 3:14, ‘Above all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.’

Wow, we could all do better in practicing that!

Last Saturday at the Farmer’s Market I was talking with Shelby who owns Swamp Rabbit Tees, about the shirts she is working on for Crazy Good Kettle Corn. I pointed to the T-Shirt hanging right in front of her display with the saying, ‘You will never look into the eyes of someone God does not love’ and said how much I love that T-Shirt, how my sister in law from Florida was ‘taken’ by it and bought one. We discussed the meaning of the saying for awhile and then she said, ‘Do you want to know how it came about, why I made it?’ 

Of course I wanted to know, I love stories!

She told me their town has a Facebook page where people can comment and discuss things about the town etc. One day somebody posted, making fun of someone they saw wearing a mask in their car. For whatever reason they had one on in the car, didn’t matter to her. She just saw the insensitivity of someone actually taking the time to post about it and some comments that followed. It upset her to see something like that on the community page, and wanted to respond immediately, letting people know how she felt! And then she stopped and thought about it. Sometimes words come out strong and people take what you said wrong and it can cause more division. She realized she can do something else,, something way better than arguing on a facebook page. So, in response, she decided to make a T-Shirt with this saying on it.

Now I love the T-Shirt even more!

During this time, when out in public, while we see just the eyes of people we pass in the grocery aisle or at the cash register, the waitress at the restaurant, the person at the drive through, or the people we sell Kettle Corn to, lets remember this saying every day, ‘You will never look into the eyes of someone God does not love!’ It may change the way we react to, speak of, or treat others.

 'And above all these things, put on love which is the perfect bond of unity.' Colossians 3:14