The lesson I learned from a pizza

I went to lunch with my friend today. We go to lunch a lot together and with limited options, we usually have a hard time deciding on where to go. We finally decided to go to a new restaurant in town and I new it was going to be good because I had been there before. At that point I was starving so pretty much anything sounded good.
When we got there, we started with our usual conversation: how's work? how's life? did you know that so-and-so said such-and-such, and on and on.
As we looked over the menu, trying to find something to "hit the spot" was hard to do in between talking and texting but we finally decided to get a pizza and I won't lie...it was delicious.

First, the dough was the perfect amount of fluffiness, it had alfredo sauce instead of the regular marinara, there were mushrooms, bacon, chicken, tomatoes (which I loved and my friend picked off), spinach, and the perfect amount of cheese. We also got a salad and some breadsticks and they were delicious but the pizza really hit the spot. After loading up on some serious carbs, we were both full to the brim so we asked for a box and ended up taking half of the pizza and some of the breadsticks with us.
I went back to my job and she went back to hers. It was chilly outside so I figured I could just leave it in my car and it would be ok.
I finished out my very long work day and by the end of it I was hungry again. I've never understood how you can eat until you almost puke and then somehow, however long later you're hungry again. Anyway, when I got back into my car, I could smell that pizza and I couldn't wait to get home, warm that sucker up, and chow down.

My commute to and from work is about 20+ minutes each way so needless to say it taunted me the whole way with it's delightful smell. Mushrooms...tomatoes...cheese....chicken....by then my tummy was growling.
As I got about 3/4 of the way home, I got stopped at a stop light. As I sat there, I looked over to my left and I saw a woman probably in her late 40's wearing a hoody with a jacket over it and she had the hood tied tightly around her head obviously trying to keep warm. It had just started to rain a little bit and the wind was relentless so I can only imagine how much fun sitting outside would be. With her was a younger girl, possibly her daughter, around late teens to early 20's and she was holding a sign. The sign was just a piece of cardboard with marker written on it that read "hungry and broke. anything helps."

Now, I've been around my fair share of homeless people. It may sound insensitive but having lived in and visited bigger cities, you tend to look the other way when people are sitting or standing with their signs asking for money. However, there was one I saw in Las Vegas that was really funny. It was a guy that looked like he had been at it a while and his sign said "too ugly to be a prostitute." It was pretty clever I thought.

As I was trying to turn a blind eye to those two ladies sitting on that corner, I started thinking about my pizza. The smell was still taunting me and my stomach was still growling.
Then I thought, you know what? I don't NEED that pizza. As with most people, I realize that I could stand to eat a little healthier, and by that time it was about 8 pm and I knew I shouldn't really gorge myself on all that bread that late anyway (not that that stops me most of the time).
I thought, it's probably going to just sit in my fridge and if it does get eaten tonight, I might not even be the one that gets to eat it (it's a full house over here so you've got to take what you can get).

Somehow with in the few seconds it took for that light to turn green, I had had an inner battle that ultimately decided that I would give my pizza to those hungry women. By then I was down the street a little ways so I made a U turn and headed back to where they were sitting. I pulled up next to them and said, "so I have half a pizza in my back seat if you guys want it." They looked at each other like, who is this broad and why is she being so creepy? After a second the younger girl asked, "are you sure?" "of course I am", I said. "I was just heading home and I figured I wasn't going to eat it anyway." I got out of my car and gave them the delicious delight that I had been dreaming about up until that point. Both ladies were very nice and I hoped that they would enjoy that pizza just as much as I had.
As I drove away, I could see them open the box and they were smiling.

Smiling.

They were sitting in mid-April weather, outside, in Idaho, with maybe a couple of blankets to keep them warm , the wind and rain picking up again as it had a hundred times that day, some random stranger had pulled up to them, offered them some leftovers, and then drove off.
And they were happy about it.

With another 10 minutes or so left on my way home, I thought about that.
I thought about all of the times I had taken my leftovers home fully intending on finishing them later, but never got to them and then they got thrown away. I thought about the money I spend everyday on lunches and how I take for granted that I can just hop in my car and go wherever my stomach takes me.
I thought about those two women and how a simple half of a pizza, not even their pizza, was quite possibly their only meal that day, and how they looked as I drove away.

Now, let me tell you something. I am not a "save the world" enthusiast. I buy Tom's shoes because I love them and I figure it's an added bonus that for every pair you buy, they give a pair of shoes to a child in Africa or somewhere. As long as they keep making them, I'm going to keep buying them and as long as they give to the children, the less I feel bad about it.

But for real, it's a good cause
http://www.toms.com

I will say that I do take it upon myself to recycle whenever I can but it's definitely not all of the time. I believe in keeping the earth beautiful and it does drive me crazy when someone has those big exhaust pipes on their truck which they are obviously overcompensating with.

I am however a "save the people" kind of person. Having served a mission, I realize the importance of salvation and the need for spirituality in your life. I've seen people light up when you tell them that there are bigger and better things in this life and in the life to come. I've felt the Spirit testify that God lives and He loves us. I wish I could say that that knowledge dictates my feelings towards others but I'm not perfect in that area and some people just drive me insane.

I understand the responsibility we all have to take care of each other whether it's donating clothes or just listening to someone when they are having a rough time.
I understand that we aren't all blessed with the comforts and luxuries that life has to offer. Some of us have fallen on hard times, whether temporal or spiritual, and we may feel like we'll never get out of the hole we have dug ourselves into.
We are all here for the same purpose. To learn and to grow.
Whatever path we are on, whatever choices we have made, we are where we are for a reason.
I truly believe people are put in our lives to help us.

Sometimes they are there to help us realize that there are much crazier people than we thought, and so those who we thought were craziest aren't so bad.
Sometimes they are there to help us realize how we should or shouldn't be treated and how valuable we really are.
Sometimes they are there to help teach us patience, both with them and with ourselves.
Sometimes they are there to make us remember that the things we take for granted, other people are forced to sit on street corners with a homemade sign asking for the very thing we have sitting in the backseat of our car that may never get eaten.

I will never see those two women again. I hope with all of my heart that they are doing well. I hope that they have a warm place to sleep and a roof over their heads. I hope that they understand that that pizza was something I wanted but they needed more than I did...and I very happily gave it to them Not because I'm a saint, but because I realize that maybe I was put in their lives to help them remember that there is something out there that wants them to know that they aren't forgotten.
Don't we all need that sometimes?

Through all of this, I hope that I remember how good it felt to give. To put myself in situations where I can be a vessel for good. To forget about the things I want and realize that when I feel like nothing is going right, I have zero reason to complain.
To keep a smile on my face because I know that I'm being watched over and that I may not always have the "things" that I need, but I will always have a way to find something even better.