Window Washing

I stood outside in the sun scraping paint and fuming! I felt like slave labor. My forte is in organizing. I can put a house together in one day but windows have never and will never be top on my chore list. How dare she treat me this way?
Then I took a deep breath and another and even another. I began to think the situation over from her point of view. I came to the realization that she knew how far I had driven. She knew how busy I was. If she asked me to scrap the windows it was probably because it was important to her.
And wasn’t that what I had offered? I had offered to give her my time and help. How she wanted to use that time was her choice. I hadn’t specified what I was willing to do or what I wasn’t willing to do. I had told her I’d help and by cracky, I’d do whatever it was SHE felt she needed. I could give her that. I even began to feel a little honored that she had entrusted me to do that which was so important to her.
It was an extremely important lesson in service to others. True service is giving what is needed. She was grateful for the work and I went home very tired but a little wiser.
Now, for the rest of the story- a number of years later I shared this story with some friends. I changed the names to protect the innocent. One of my friends spoke to me later. She named the woman. I asked her how she knew. Because “she” has a real thing about her windows being clean! That WAS her most important thing and she had asked me to do it.
That lesson has come in handy many times over the years as I have tried to serve in ways that are needed instead of what makes me feel better. That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?