Walking Spirit

I think I've talked about it before but it continues to astound me how small the world is. These strange connections keep happening. Little examples of how interwoven our lives truly are. Here are a few examples:

In the very early days, while I was still in the Burn Unit, one of the nurses who took care of me happened to be the older brother of someone I was in the Jazz Band with in High School. More recently, my friend Amber, who works for WIBC, was interviewing the Fire Chief from Greencastle who happened to be one of the people who was at the scene of the accident. Somehow they made the connection. I believe he told her that it was a fire he would never forget. (I'm sure you can all imagine why.)

Even more recently, while Dot was putting together the concert she managed to come across some old friends. While dropping off some information at a local church (I may not get this exactly right) she met the mother of a friend of mine from Junior High School, who is also a good friend of my High School Sweetheart. I'm not sure, but she may have even spoken with my X. (We're on good terms now so, if she did speak with her, I'm confident it went well.) Dot's quest also led her to contact the Kroger corporate office, where she spoke with Marcia Burnett, who ran the bookstore at Broad Ripple High School when I was there. (When I would skip class that was one of the places that I would hang out.) Marcia was kind of the school mom my group of friends back then. She always watched out for us and was ready to give great advice. (Not sure where I'd be if we didn't have her.)

Amber came back in to the mix again about two weeks ago when her son Perrin (my God Son) took a gift to his teacher on the last day of school. At the same time there was a little girl presenting her going away gift to the teacher. The gift was one of our cookbooks! Perrin recognized it immediately and asked "Where did you get that?!" The teacher said "It's just a cookbook", to which Perrin replied "that's no ordinary cookbook!" Turns out the little girl is my cousin Lyla, daughter of my cousin Sarah (my generation), daughter of my cousin Karen (Mom's generation, who is the daughter of my Aunt Jeanie, who is my Grandpa's sister. Perrin and Lyla were in the same class and we never knew it!

Dot recently sent me an e-mail that I think fits with this very well:


A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

What food might this contain? The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me." "I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but
there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.

To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died.

So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

REMEMBER,,,,

EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY; OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER FOR A REASON.


Whether you were conscious of this or not, almost two years ago you gathered together to support my family and I when we were threatened, and (although the recent drop in comments doesn't support this) you haven't left my side since.