I will soon turn 47, for the second time!  I know you are probably thinking, “she has lost IT!”  Let me explain.  Last year, I made up my mind, that I was 46 and on my birthday, I would turn 47.  I actually thought I was 47, until an appointment with my doctor, to get treatment for an upper respiratory infection.  During the assessment, the doctor ask my age, then the year that I was born, then she said, umm…..you aren’t 47, you are 46!!! Which means, when I thought I was 46, I was actually 45, and so on.

On Friday, I had to travel to my county DMV to renew my license.  Yea, I have to admit I was dreading the visit, for a couple of reasons.  One, I really liked my current photo on my license, it was taken 10 years ago.  So,  I had to fix my hair, put on makeup, and hope for the best.  Two, the long wait just to get the updated photo, isn’t on my list of favorite things to do.  As I often do, when faced with a negative, I decided to keep a smile on my face, and continue to do so, no matter what happened, beyond those double glass doors of the DMV.

As expected, the line was long, and only a couple of clerks were on duty.  I kept my positive attitude, and decided to look around for someone to start a conversation.  I made eye contact with a few people, smiled, and they smiled back, but none of those were close enough to talk.  So, I finally made it to the point to pick up my application, and proceeded to my chair and began to fill it out .  Before I had time to finish my paper work, my number was called, and I jumped up, signing my signature at the bottom as I walked to the desk.  Can you say multitask?  My heart sped up a bit, and I just kept smiling, in spite of my nervousness.  I always get nervous, when it’s time to do the eye test, because I wonder at what age, my eyes will need glasses for driving.  I passed the test, but had to keep repeating the last four digits of the line.  I was trying to figure which number I was getting wrong, but I kept saying the same, as I had read each time.  I was really getting nervous!

When I finished, the clerk stated that she couldn’t hear me, because the man beside me was talking very loudly.  Well, he was to my left deaf ear, and I didn’t even hear him.  I told her that I had lost the hearing in my left ear, after a bad head cold a few years ago.  I told her, my hearing loss really gets on my husband’s nerves;  when he is trying to talk to me, and I can’t make out what he is saying.  I was jabbering away, I guess I was still feeling my nerves a bit.

Well, here comes the blessing of my day.  I was so not expecting to get a blessing, at the DMV.  The clerk shared a story of her son’s sudden loss of his eye sight.  I will share this story as best as I can, as she was very soft spoken, and suffer from the a fore mentioned hearing loss.

Her son was a state highway worker, and was mowing the side of the road.  Another vehicle hit him from the rear, and caused the mower to hit the ground very hard, and this threw him up, causing him to hit his head.  The brain damage from that hit, caused permanent damage to his left optic nerve, and he lost his ability to see out of that eye.  His right eye, was his weak eye, and he couldn’t see very well, at all.  She shared that one day, during his recovery from the accident, she had picked up some movies for him to watch.  He tried to watch them, but finally told her to turn the TV off, because he could not see what was on the screen.  Her eyes teared up, and she touched her heart, as did I.  When another parent shares their child’s pain with you, you immediately understand and feel the same kind of ache.   I had no concept as to my surroundings at that time.  She then shared the miracle with me.   With many prayers and much faith, his weak eye began to get stronger.  He then, became a candidate for corrective surgery, and now he can see very well.  I was so blessed at that very moment, and I became very thankful that God put me in that place at the right moment.

I thanked her for sharing her story with me, and told her, that she had made me day.  She finished processing my license, and we shared a pleasant goodbye.  For the next ten years, every time I look at my license, I will remember that wonderful clerk’s blessing.  Also, I will remember my blessings.  If I have to show my license for any reason, and someone mentions the smile on my face;  I hope that I will get to share my DMV experience again and again!

So, if you are ever at the DMV, and you wonder what is taking those clerks so long, stay positive,  you might just find out; like me,  someone might be having a moment of being BLESSED!