Taking A Step Forward

I woke up this morning at 1:00am after an unexpected but much needed nap….this might be the point where I warn you to get a few snacks because this could take a bit to navigate through my thoughts. So if you so choose and if you have your snacks (and patience) shall we buckle up and take a ride? As I was saying I woke up early, like I sometimes do with my very erratic sleep pattern, and like I also often do I grabbed my phone and got on Facebook. I read a few of the things trending and some other posts that my friends had shared and I had to put the phone down. One of my first thoughts was united we stand, divided we fall and my goodness how we seem to be falling. But when have I just had one thought? So I somehow went from that to the tortoise and the hare story. Don’t ask, I give up trying to figure out how my mind does that but I promise I have a point if you just stick with me. I think everyone knows the story of the tortoise and the hare. In my early morning train wreck of thinking on this fable I thought you know to many of us have become the hare (I’m pointing all my fingers to myself). Think about it, the hare bragged no one can beat me I’m the fastest one around. The day came for the race what did the hare do? Took a nap and when he woke up he saw the tortoise hadn’t gotten that far so he ate and got sleepy so took another nap. Each time the hare would look and see the tortoise seemingly hadn’t gotten very far and the hare thought he had plenty of time to cross the finish line…until it was to late and he lost the race. Now when I say I’m the hare I’m not necessarily saying I’m going around bragging that I’m the best at this or I can finish this first or better than anyone. What I am saying though is to often people think they got plenty of time so they let other things distract them and/or hold them back. They look at the racetrack (life if you will) and think oh I got plenty of time. I think to often we look at life like we do that screen on the phone and all we see is this ridiculously small part, and it’s time we get a panoramic view because the blinders have made it look like the tortoise isn’t that far ahead, like we’re still a long way away from the finish line. On car side view mirrors it often says objects in mirror may appear closer than they are. Free thought alert…we are running the race looking through the side view mirror. Everything looks closer than it appears giving us the illusion we have plenty of time, or we’re insignificant we can’t make a difference. Lies, all lies. Let’s just say we do have plenty of time, what are you doing with that time? I don’t know about you but me, well I’ve been spending to much of my time like the hare and taking naps and just going through the motions (there’s a whole other blog post in limbo right now that gets into all of that, that one may or not get posted). Making excuses why not to do something just yet. I think if you was to ask someone without ever even reading the story which animal would win the race, most would say the hare. Everyone is so concerned with finishing the race first, somehow that got important like you’re a loser if you’re not first. It’s just important that you finish, take the scenic route, get lost a few times, whatever happens don’t get so discouraged that you quit taking steps toward the finish line. I applaud those marathon runners that keep running long after the first person crossed the finish line. They get it. It’s not important where you finish, it’s just important you finish. You know what I admire about the tortoise and why I want to be more like him? His steps were slow but he kept moving. To often in life when we’re to focused on being first, or let’s just be honest, we’re to focused on self we miss out. Actually, I saw this presented in a way this past weekend that made perfect sense. You put it in a way I can see it right in front of me or pull a Sophia Petrillo and say Picture it….it helps make more sense and something clicks and it sticks with me a lot longer. Anyway back to the tortoise. I want to be like him because no matter how slow or small his steps appeared to others he kept moving forward. And again it’s not about being fast, I often wonder how much we miss by worrying or being so focused on everything else. It’s like we become the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland and all we can do is say, ‘I’m late! I’m late! No time to say to say hello, goodbye. I’m late!’ Then what happens we very well may miss the opportunity to talk to someone that either we may help get a little further on in their race or they may have been sent to help us carry a little of our load or take some stuff away or a number of other things. Now you may be thinking wait isn’t that more like the hare and stopping, how is that moving forward. We all have pit stops in life, some expected some unexpected. Some look like they are going to destroy us and make us lose the race only for us to look back and at least for me think I see what you did there God. I think if we were walking with the tortoise we would see he had pit stops, he probably stopped and got him something to eat but maybe he also had a pit stop where he met a snail and the snail was like I wish I could do that but I’m even slower than you are there’s no way I can finish the race so the tortoise took the time to encourage and give the snail some wisdom he had learned along the way. Perhaps the tortoise got so far and he started getting discouraged he got a heavy burden that was slowing him down even further. Then along came a butterfly that landed on his shell and started whispering some words of wisdom to the tortoise. Because you never, ever meet anyone by accident. You ever watch Bob Ross (the painter), I used to love it when he was painting something and I knew there would eventually be a tree. Sounds silly but if you’ve ever watched him you know he never painted just one tree, he always painted that tree a friend and I loved what he’d say, ‘Gotta give him a friend. Like I always say everyone needs a friend.’ You see we all get tired, we all at one point or another get a heavy load. There’s a song called I’ll Keep On by NF (featuring Jeremiah Carlson) and part of it says, ‘Oh these hands are tired, oh this heart is tired, oh this soul is tired but I’ll keep on, I’ll keep on, I’ll keep on.’ Speaking from personal experience I know that sometimes it can seem impossible to be able to keep on but I think that’s often times when God paints us a friend or someone you may have never even met (in my most recent case both) to provide a way so you can get rid of some of that baggage that is making you tired. Seeing as how I’m on a roll with quoting songs and using stories and such it’s like the song That’s God by Jo Dee Messina and the part that states, ‘when people make a difference just being who they are, or when someone wants to lend a helping hand. Maybe it’s somebody who just takes the time to listen to let you know that they understand.’ It goes on to say how that’s God, obviously these people aren’t really God but He places these people in your life or let’s you see that sunrise/sunset, the waves of the ocean just to remind you or in many cases to help you. And I truly am grateful for the people and even the circumstances that happened that were meant and what I thought was going to destroy me because they ended up bringing me right where I needed to be and to meet the people I have and to be fortunate enough to have the friends I do because as I have said many times I don’t make it easy to be my friend (or didn’t but I think that wall has been torn down not to be built back again, dear God please don’t let me ever, ever build that wall again). Before I take another side road I guess I should end this with some points that I intended to make but not sure I really have.  I hope that in this race called life we can remember and find the ability to slow down because it’s not how fast you run or even how you start but being able to cross the finish line that matters. In the story of the tortoise and the hare, the tortoise says, ‘slowly does it every time.’ A slow step is a step and as long as you are stepping in the right direction and moving forward it is better to take your time because as I did mention you just never know who and what you might learn from them along the way. You ever met people along those pit stops that encourage you to take a major step of faith and I’m thinking no I’m good really but they help you along or give you words of wisdom. I’ve had people do that and then maybe ask if I’m mad or apologize saying they don’t mean to be pushy or whatever. To those people thank you because with me sometimes that’s just what you have to do and if I wasn’t so backwards on hugging people I’d totally give each of you a huge hug. I appreciate anyone willing to take the time to help me, and I appreciate the lessons I’ve learned from people that they don’t even know about. I just read a blog post from Billy Coffey and he talked about asking people questions on why you pray all the smart people with the degrees just left him with more questions but good old Ralph while sitting at the Dairy Queen eating his cheeseburger,  well he had the answer and he didn‘t need to turn around and grab a lot of books from his bookshelf or rely on a Ph. D. degree (not sure how that fits in but somehow, somewhere in my land of many thoughts it does). I’m not really sure how to end this, I’m not even really sure this is where it should end. I imagine you’re getting pretty low on snacks now and maybe even patience. Just remember you’re not the only one in the race and you don’t have to finish first. That person walking beside of you that looks like they are holding their own in the race, they just may need a pat on the back or an encouraging word just like on down the road you may need the same thing.

Psalm 30:5 - ….weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning