It was too early for the restaurant to be open. In the crisp morning air, it was cold and silent, devoid of any evidence that people were the essential element that would bring this establishment to life. From appearances, it was a stage waiting for characters. My mind began to fill in pieces with figments of my imagination. As the story formed, I found myself in an old classroom with Life in the role of an old-fashioned one-room schoolmarm.
I knew listening was essential. If not, in my imagination, she would be wrapping my knuckles as a reminder to remain focused and involved. The lingering lessons include the following.
Life, in one’s experience, changes one’s heart and soul. I often think I can go through an event or interaction and come out the same as I was. I have no evidence that this is true. Every individual I have met has left their mark. I am better because of my experiences. I also recognise more demons, fears, and doubts. Looking back, each experience has been a brushstroke contributing to who I am.
Ideas and ideals have an opportunity to become beliefs and priorities with experience. Once one experiences anything, there is no mechanism to remove the insight and awareness that is etched within one’s heart and mind. Re-doing is not an option in life. I have come to see the role my attempts at re-doing as a replay. Each replay will remind, reinforce, and replicate. There is no going back to what was before. The only choice is forward.
I hear one author’s description of an individual’s before and after. “What we do see is Jesus, made ‘not quite as high as angels,’ and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory ‘bright with Eden’s dawn light.’ In that death, by God’s grace, he fully experienced death in every person’s place.” (Hebrews 2.9)
The invitation to live and be changed by experience is here. May the change in my life be driven by love, kindness, and care.
