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Fun In Teaching By Example

© Cindy Ovard

The alarm clock buzzer went off much to early for a Saturday morning. Saturday at 5:30 AM is an hour that kids should be sleeping and parents should be enjoying the quiet of dreams without a kick in the head by little ones who wind up sleeping in their beds because of bad dreams. But, yes the alarm went off and we crawled out of bed only to awaken our sweet sleeping angles to enjoy a fun filled morning strolling the beaches of the Pacific ocean while we feed the pigeons. I feel a song coming on, possibly "Feed the Birds." (Mary Poppins for all you non-musical people) Yes, The family could use some early Saturday morning exercise by strolling the beaches to the smell ocean air and the feel of the ocean breeze on our faces as we watch the sun come up over the mountains.

Alas, the sky was overcast with the ocean fog that had blown in so watching the sun come up over the mountains wouldn't be a joy to behold, but we could still walk the beaches and feel the breeze on our faces.

As we pulled into our parking spot the kids noticed a couple of homeless people pushing their cart along the jogging path. One guy was hunched over the garbage bins looking for any metal cans discarded by others. As we passed on by not wanting to smell the smells of their dirty clothing something fell out of their cart. As one guy bent to pick it up my seven-year-old son tripped over it. They grabbed his hand to help him up and apologized. My husband struck up a conversation with them. I've always admired his compassion for people and his will to act on that feeling. He is a go'er and a do'er.

As my children and I watched Dad converse with these two men who were down on their luck instead of passing judgment on them and saying rude words he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few dollars for their breakfast; these were our breakfast dollars and they were now their breakfast dollars. As they left with a handshake and kind words my husband turned to us and smiled his wonderful full mouth grin. He simply stated to our children who were gazing in bewilderment at the departing men over the loss of our breakfast money, "We give what we can to those who are less fortunate." This brought on a slew of questions from our children on what less fortunate means.

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