|
Walking Through Life
One day, she asked me, Do you have a son about eight years old? 'What has he done?' I thought. I nodded yes. She pressed on. Does he play soccer? When I said that he did, she asked if he played in a game the previous week at a particular field. Again, I answered, Yes. I thought so, she smiled. I saw him and thought he must be your son. Since there were tens of thousands of young boys in the city, I was amazed and exclaimed, I didn't know he looked that much like me! Oh, I didn't see his face, she said smiling as if she were keeping a secret. Then how did you know he was my son? Now I was puzzled. I was just sitting in the car, and I saw a little boy in a baseball cap walking across the field to join his team. He walks like you. Walks like me? Now I was curious. How do I walk? Since I'm doing the walking, I don't notice how I look to others. Maybe I could watch him amble around to get an idea. That said, how we walk down a street and how we walk through life are very different things. Perhaps I can't help how I walk down a street, but I want to be intentional about how I walk through life. Through life, I want to walk gently. I want to treat all of life the earth and its people with reverence. I want to remove my shoes in the presence of holy ground. As much as possible, I want to walk in peace. I want to walk lightly, even joyfully, through whatever days I am given. I want to laugh easily. I want to step carefully in and out of people's lives and relationships. I don't want to tread any heavier than necessary. And throughout life, I think I would like to walk with more humility and less anger, more love and less fear. I want to walk confidently, but without arrogance. I want to walk in deep appreciation. I want to be genuinely thankful for life's extravagant, yet simple, gifts a star-splattered night sky or a hot drink on an ice-cold day. If life is a journey, then how I make that journey is important. How I walk through life. But still I wonder how I look when I walk down a street. |
