Save that Shoe!

Team,

Life is busy.  Life is demanding.  Constant.  Exhausting.  Simultaneously fruitful and fruitless. Distracted.  Family brings fulfillment but complicates.  There is never enough time to feel accomplished nor a fast enough pen to evict items from the list before another moves in, occupying space existing only in a reality that refuses to accommodate the clock.  More.  So, that’s our excuse.  That’s why we don’t take time to find fulfillment in the simple.  That’s why we refuse to focus on what we innately desire but feel compelled to suppress in the name of success, progress, and “normal”.  Our kids are on every team that will have them, our yards are spotless, and our cars not only get washed but get the $20 wax upgrade while our neighbor quietly nods and waves, dreading his wife’s test results.  Contentedness follows only overindulgence.  With our steak, we have cake.  With our kids we must have perfection, and with our lives we must lead the foolhardy charge headfirst into what we think our neighbors envy.  It’s a lonely task, but we not only sign up we raise our hands with the vigor of Brokaw’s Greatest Generation as they charged onto the beaches of Normandy.  Bullets flying as we plunge through the quicksand of a complicated life.  

Impact.  Compassion. Influence.  Blessings.  Love.  Fulfillment.  Had we taken the same amount of time to focus on the simple as we obsess the complex, how many lives could have been changed?  How many more picnics would we have taken with our kids and how many more prayers would have been said around the table?  How many others might we have blessed with our kindness and how many more neighborhood kids would remember yours as the “cool house”?  How many of your employees would think of you first in times of struggle and know, not think, they could rely on you for the support they need?    If given the opportunity again, how many of us would have opened the door, laughed at the joke, simply said “good morning”, offered a shoulder for tears or an ear to listen if we had any idea when we started our journeys so many years ago that these are the only things that truly matter.   Whatever form it takes for you, get in the game and allow the simple blessing of serving others bless and nourish your soul.  Make a choice.  Save the shoes. 

“If you are not lighting any candles, don’t complain about being in the dark.” - Unknown