As most folks who read my blogs know, I have been a police officer for over 30 years. Like everyone else, I’ve faced challenges in my life and like everyone else I’ve faced times when I had to work in an efficient and professional manner even when life wasn’t all peaches and cream. It’s often a challenge to remain professional and focused while life is less than ideal. So many police officers and military personnel today are working through personal issues but can’t take time off to do so. By the same token, being distracted on the street – or in a combat zone – can get you hurt or worse, so our warriors have to set aside their personal issues and get on with doing their jobs.
I was having one of those kinds of days in the late 1980s. I was separated, going through a divorce, having disagreements with my parents and my supervisors at work and… well, just nothing was going my way; or so it seemed. One afternoon at work I had taken a quick break to grab a snack at the local convenience store and when I was getting back into my patrol car, I looked down in the parking lot and found a quarter. Like anyone else, I bent over to pick it up and realized that the quarter had been through hell. It was scratched, nicked, dented and more. Some parts of it were so rough that I wondered if it would tear holes in my pocket. I dropped it in anyway.
Later that day, when my shift was over and I was home, I was emptying out my pockets and out came that quarter. I almost dropped it into the jar with all my other change but hesitated for some reason. I honestly couldn’t tell you why I hesitated but I did and I held that quarter in my hand, examining it and all of its signs of abuse.
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This entry is part of the book “A Fork In The Road; Navigating Your Path of Life with Motivation.” To read the complete entry and enjoy all of the other similar works, please purchase the book on Amazon.com by following this link: http://amzn.to/2j0T4D0
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