By: Humans of Calvert County,(HOCC)
HOCC: This man truly is and forever will be one of my greatest examples of joy. I feel so much gratitude for knowing this soul and I learn from him every time we speak. I am truly humbled to know him.
He was my very first interview with Humans Of Calvert County. He had faith in my abilities when I didn’t, joy and optimism when I had fear and skepticism. I will be forever grateful for his faith, love and joy which I know has touched so many.
It’s a longer read, but I promise you, his spirit and life lessons will well be worth your time. Enjoy! ?
“People see this big guy and they don’t know what to think. And then they see me smile. And they say ‘why you always smiling?!’ I say, ‘cuz I woke up this morning!’
I tell people if He wake you up in the morning, don’t lay there. He wake you up for a reason! That’s your blessing! Now go find out what your blessing is and go do something and make your life worth being up for that day! He gave you that blessing, then make that a blessing of a day! Go find what He’d have for you to do, don’t lay there!
That’s my goal baby. To love everybody. And I love everybody. Do I like everybody? No I don’t like everybody, but I gotta love you. Because I’m dealing with your flesh. That’s the part I don’t like. But I love your spirit. You dig where I’m comin’ from?
I had a white guy, look….I tell everybody this story. He was prejudiced, he didn’t like black for nothin’ just didn’t like them. Everyday I spoke to him. Everyday. for a year. He’d roll his eyes, get in the car and slam the door. And one day I spoke to him, and he said ‘hey, how you doin?’ I say ‘why you talking to me like this now?’ He said ‘because I did everything in my power to hate you, but you kept coming to me.’
I said, ‘I know. That’s why I love you to death.’ Now he comes and if I’m up here working on that deck and he sees me, he says ‘I’ll come help you!’ He loves me now! Now I can’t get rid of him!
My thing is to show you love. No matter if you’re up or down, show you love! That’s my job. That’s what God put me here for.
I can feel people’s spirit. I know when they’re down. I can feel when your burdened. So I’ll tell you kind words, and I’ll smile. And I’ll tell you to give me that smile. A lot of them come back a day later or two days later and hug me and say I needed that. And I say I know, because I felt that. I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman, I’ll go over there and say a kind word to you, because you need that. Your spirit is already beaten down, and your body, so you need a kind word. And I’ll give you that. I’m good at that.
And I love everybody. Even if you don’t like me. There ain’t nowhere I can go and I don’t fit in. I don’t care where I go. You can’t go there…..Watch me. I’ll go. I’m not scared of nothing. Nothing. Not what people think. For what? They don’t hurt me. We all have faults, we all have flaws, so why am I going to worry about what somebody thinks. I put my blinders on and keep going.
Don’t worry about other people’s judgements. They gotta find their selves. They’re still searching. A lot of people like that, they’re searching for their self.
I know I love me from within. I can go to bed with a smile on my face.
I’ve been knowing who I was. Ever since I was a kid. No matter what happened to me, I always came out smelling like a rose. All my life, anything I went to do, I never wanted to be a millionaire. If I get the money, then I take it. But that was never my goal. My goal is that whatever I do, to conquer it, be the best of it. If I’m going to be a shoe shine boy, let me shine that shoe! I want it so shiny, that you could see your face. You understand what I’m sayin’? Anything I do, I want to be the best of it.
Faith is key. Faith and love will conquer it all. That’s the key to everything. Faith and love. And love is faith.
I got it. I had it all the time. I had it all the time. When the doctor told me, we got good news and bad news. The good news is I got the cancer out of your stomach. But it spread to your lymph nodes. And I said, ‘well give me the bad news. Because you did what you had to do, let him do what he has to do now.’ This ain’t about me and you, it’s about him. He would not put nothing on you or me that we couldn’t bear. He chooses.
We all born and die. Why would I be scared? The only way we can see him is we gotta die. It’s not your home baby. And the kids you have, they’re not yours, your borrowing them. They’re not your kids, they’re his. He lets us borrow each other. That’s what it’s about.
You love your kids, but that’s not your child, that’s God’s child. He gave it to you for your pleasure because you wanted kids. He gave you something to fulfill your emptiness. That’s them. Your kids. Yeah they’re not yours. That’s why they leave home when they’re a certain age. Because they’re not yours.
I’m sick with cancer, but I’m still me. Nothin’ gonna change that. The man upstairs got me. I ain’t going to lose this smile. Ya know. That’s all I got is a smile and it’s free! Don’t cost you nothing. This really brought me closer to everybody. People I have problems with, I learn how to deal with it and forgive them. That’s small stuff now, I don’t sweat it. I’ve got bigger fish to fry. You know what I’m saying. I’m not going to be here forever, so I gotta get myself prepared for the other side really. We all have too. But it doesn’t hit us until the time gets close.
It ain’t about you, that’s the key. We’re in this thing together, whether you like it or not.
Don’t be afraid to tell people that. You understand. Don’t ever be afraid to let people know you love him. Because you get a lot of blessing when you let people know. Me and you talking right now. He’s here in the middle. He’s telling you what to say and he’s telling me what to say to you.
That’s all you gotta do is listen. He’s trying to tell you something. You can’t take the weight of the world on your shoulders, it’s not for you to do. Give it to him. We’re not big enough. We’re never big enough. You understand? We’re not big enough for nothing. It’s just like your kids. You’ve got your babies and you can feed them and you can kiss them good night, but if they get a sickness, or they get a cold, and there’s nothing you can do, you wish you could take it from them. You understand? It’s too big for you. Give it to him.
And I’ll be right here. I’ll let you know that too. I will.”