The lights at the top of the escalator were striking in the nighttime setting. At that moment, I flashed back to when I was eight or nine, standing on an escalator with my father. He told me the story of a girl he had once gone to school with. Her father had an integral role in the invention of the moving rail, a key component that makes an escalator safer. Dad went on to recognise his genius, giving him credit for a contribution that continues to make our world a better place.
Reflecting on my father’s words and replaying the memory in my mind, I considered the amazing women and men who contributed to who I am today. Words of encouragement in a critical time, an endless curiosity about how anything and everything worked, and the imagination to solve the impossible are just the beginning. In the echo of my father’s words, metaphorically, “You [I] realize just how great Melchizedek is when you see that Father Abraham gave him a tenth of the captured treasure.” (Hebrews 7.4)
I am more with the contributions of others than I am alone. The lesson reminder is to keep this with my heart and approach to relationships. With others, I am more. With others, the impossible is within reach. With others, our vision is further and deeper than with just mine alone. I need others, starting with Divinity, to be all I can be.
Gifts are more complete when they come with a response. I remember the look of respect and awe in my dad’s eyes. He recognised the contribution. It seemed to my young mind that he was reliving the interactions at school, wishing he had said then what he was sharing now – his admiration and thanks. It is a lesson reminder of how important the full loop is. In many ways, a sauna is never complete without the cold that follows. A gift is complete when we have shared our thankfulness and appreciation with the given so that s/he has an opportunity to know how much it means.
