We often see the sudden death of someone beloved…..or a serious, unexpected illness that no longer allows conversation….and hear of the attendant missed opportunities to express love or gratitude or even simple concern.
But then we go about our usual business of living, somehow rationalizing, using our societal norms of a visit, or flowers, maybe even a card, assuring ourselves we have done “the right thing.”
We are allowed these norms, even encouraged to embrace them, by a culture that reflects our inability to recognize the real loss. We have a lot of company in that loss.
The loss of the day to day encounters, visits, actual phone conversations, when there is no emergent call to arms…when being fully present is the reciprocal gift
to a child or parent or friend.
Grace whispers in the moment….in the unprescribed….in the hum drum of nothing special but everything special.
The proper dress, proper manners, embellished words, care and concern that rise when choices are gone soften the day, until a quiet voice at night calls us to who we could have been.
Every new day affords the possibility of change. We can elect to reflect the face of Christ by leaving behind our busyness that robs precious time from authentic living.
Jackie Shields
From Frederick Buechner:
Thus, when you wake up in the morning,
called by God to be a self again, if you want
to know who you are, watch your feet. Because
where your feet take you, that is who you are.
Lessons from the Road 