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One of many wooden bridges in Brown's Ferry
Today I walked farther than I've walked before, not that it is far compared to most folks. While walking I discovered a way to know someone isn't an Oregonian. When they walk their dog they don't carry a plastic bag. Secondly, I discovered if you are healthy enough to walk and have a wonderful place to walk, as I do, you can walk yourself right out of a pity party.
Like millions of others and several people I know personally, I am job hunting. I thought I'd finally found a great job when they called my trusted references. I didn't say it, but I really thought it was just a matter of time before I got that welcomed call. Well, I got that email, but I didn't get the job. So the quest continues.
Last week the person at the Post Office complained about the people they work with. That's normal I guess, but when you're job hunting it's hard to have patience with those who don't know what they have. I suppose that applies to everything, not just jobs. I confess I am very grateful to be healthy, walking, in love and the list goes on and on.
When I started my email to let my references know I did not get the job, but appreciated their support, I stopped and stared at their names. I realized how important they are to me, how much I have learned from them and again, how blessed I am to have others who care about me and support me. How many people are without any support at all?
Sometimes I think of life as a wooden bridge we all must journey. We're all like grains of sand. The wind and rains of life come and we are washed down through the cracks in the bridge, never to be seen again. It isn't as though any of us can prevent it. Eventually something in life will wash me, you, everyone down through the cracks.
Every beginning has an ending. How often is our time on the bridge linked to the people we know? Others prevent us from falling through the cracks. Too often we forget we are God's hands. God supports me, you, and others through the people who know us, just as we must do the same.
Some trees are like that. Under the ground their roots are all interwoven. When the winds and rain come, as they do in Oregon, what keeps more trees from falling is their intermingled root system. Of course when we come in and remove most of the trees the remaining few are in peril.
I thought about these things as I walked this morning. I thought about my wife and children and grandchild. I thought about my friends. I thought about the people who engage me in spiritual direction and I walked out of my pity party.
It's easy to pray for others when you have a grateful heart. How do you get a grateful heart? Start walking and thinking about the people in your life. Then ask God whose life you aren't in, but should be.
As I started up the stairs from walking it started to rain again, but I know it won't last.
Comments
This ia one of your best articles yet. It speaks to so many people walking on that path and do not realize it!
Well done
I was very much moved by this article as well. It did speak to me how I (we all) should be more open to those around us.
Richard, this is a beautiful article. I am a soloist and one of my favoirate songs is titled, "Gratitude". Your words are a beautiful example of just that.
Just another one of your articles that brings tears to my eyes because I so often see myself. But this one hit home even more so than the others. It made me realize that those pity parties that I so often attend are easier to get out of by myself instead of relying on someone else to pull me away from them. It all depends on who you call to come get you.
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