AFTER I AM FINISHED

AFTER I AM FINISHED

I rise early no less than six days a week and write three pages, supposedly about anything that comes to mind. The thoughts need not be orderly or connected. Try it. It is worthwhile practice. When I started, I wrote three pages of random disconnected thoughts. Not anymore. Often these days, the thoughts are connected to a recent occurrence, which is how I came to think of a niece. We had talked two days before. Thinking of the niece led me to the thoughts of my mother, her grandmother, because they shared a birthday. The thoughts of my mother led to the thoughts of a friend who had taken me to lunch the day before and who recently lost a loved one. Her mother lives with her. Thinking of my niece, my friend and my mother led me to think of how others and mothers continue to shape lives long after they are gone.

My mother died twenty-two years ago. My niece’s mother, my sister, died six years ago. My niece has been knocked down and gotten up more times than I can remember. My friend, aided by her mother, took care of her loved one for months before the battle of earth living was lost. I believe the three of us share a trait honed and hewed by watching our mothers and grandmother … an indefatigable spirit - we view our world, our problems, our future, we make a “to do” list and we deal with it.

I witnessed my mother getting knocked down by the circumstances of life. She rose from each smackdown tougher, wiser, and more resilient than ever. Giving up on others or giving in to a challenging situation wasn’t an option for her. I see that indefatigable spirit in my niece, my friend and myself.

I have a memory of a white sweater purchased for me in elementary school. My family was the “mouse” in the idiom, “poor as a church mouse.” I wore the sweater to school and didn’t come home with it. A few weeks later, the sweater reappeared on the back of a classmate. I told my mother about the sweater’s reappearance. Her words have informed many of my actions since, “Let her keep it. She probably needs it more than you do.”  I remember thinking, “Well, that’s not true. And where is the money for a new white sweater?”  Sometime later, another white sweater appeared. Her words that day still resurface sometimes in my daily living.

What does these ramblings have to do with you? You will continue to inform the lives of those you encounter long after your departure. What information will you have left on deposit in them?

PROVERBS 13:22

PONDER THIS THOUGHT---That which one deposits in others lives beyond what one can see.