People Serving Others

Beauty presents itself to us in many forms. One is the sight of people living selflessly to help each other throughout each day.

My morning walk leads me to people who work in the businesses that meet our day-to-day needs, often at risk to themselves.

My first stop is Ashland Hardware…

Madelyn is a young person working the cash register. Here, she provides focused service to someone buying a tool for around the house. If you look carefully, you can see that she is behind a Plexiglass screen.

Cathy, one of the Ashland Hardware managers, gives careful attention to a customer needing to place an order.

“When all else fails… improvise.” Here’s an on-the-spot idea to enable people to open doors without touching the handle with their hands.

Right next door is the Simple Cafe, run by Javier Cruz. He and his staff provide delicious food for takeout, breakfast and lunch…

Who wouldn’t want to be greeted by Javier? By the way… he too, is behind a window for protection of himself and his customers.

A contractor takes a break, shares a story, and gets what looks like a breakfast burrito before heading back out to a job site.

Next, it’s on to Bloomsbury Books on Main Street. It’s open for “takeout” books.

If books aren’t essential in Ashland, what is?

A happy customer gets service at the door, having purchased a book over the phone.

Lastly, one of my favorite places Ashland… Manna From Heaven Bakery. It is run by a fourth generation European-style baker, Kay, who teams up with Dave of Griffin Creek Coffee. They serve delicious coffee, and pastries that are a sheer delight.

For the duration of the Covid-19 lockdown, they do a takeout-only business in their shop, toward the West end of Calle Guanajuato…

There you have it… A group of everyday saints, doing their best to keep life going, for them and for us. One turned to me today and said, “It’s heart work to do this.” Each one of them brings new life to the day…

And what of us? We have to let them know how we feel about their service… now, so they don’t have to learn of our gratitude when someone writes a book about it years down the road.

Thanks for joining me on my walks!

I hope you’ll join me again for my morning glimpses.  I promise to fill them with beauty and to keep the narrative blessedly short.

Until the next time…

Grace and peace to you,

Art Mills