An Original

The work life of a retail cashier is never dull, but always busy. In between scanning customer purchases out, the never-ending supply of Staples Rewards applications are input into the store database, ink cartridges (of various brand names and sizes) are put into plastic security cases, and refreshment items are restocked in the front of the store.

My uniform is all black (from the feet to waist). From the waist to my neck, the light blue 4x Polo-style shirt (too large due to a recent thirty pound weight loss) has a black collar and is untucked and slightly unbuttoned at the neck. The arms of the shirt are trimmed in black. The company emblem is on the upper left side of the shirt. The magnetic white name badge is fastened below.

Quantity of customers can vary from a trickle (that I can handle myself) to a raging river of too many individuals (that I request employee assistance for with one of the store’s walkie talkies).

Sometime around 11:30am on Wednesday, October 14, 2015, “Roxie” (an attractive woman in her late forties) walked up to my register, and paid for her few items with cash. (I am unable to remember what was purchased.) It was a slow period. (She was the only customer at the time.)

I complimented Roxie on her hair. It was a mound of gorgeous black messy corkscrew curls haphazardly positioned all over her head. Roxie thanked me, and then informed me when she was in high school she straightened her hair (for hours) every morning so she could blend in with the rest of the girls there. I told her trying to be like everyone else had to be an exhausting endeavor at that point in her teenage existence.

I told her my late younger brother, Jimmy, told me to be myself because I couldn’t make everyone happy all the time. As our brief time together finally came to a quick conclusion, Roxie said it had been quite freeing several years ago when it dawned on her that all she had to do was be herself.

 If people disliked her as she was, that was their problem and not hers. Roxie adored her hair the way it was, and that’s the way it remained styled (natural) just the way God intended it to be. (My freeing time of self acceptance had come in my mid-thirties).

Whether God is currently on your radar or not, He has never lost track of you even if it might seem that way. There are no fancy prerequisites for being in His presence. God wants to have fellowship with you just as you are (with all your strengths and weaknesses).

You can also ask God right now to provide you with the right friends that will encourage and accept the “total” you. If you currently have a friend (or friends) like this, be thankful because not everyone does. The blessings (of associates like this) are priceless. So make your mark in the world with your streak of originality (and creativity) that lies deep inside you. God is always there 24/7 to help you with anything you need.