Image by TahoeSunsets via FlickrDriving by a man standing at a busy intersection holding a sign that asked not for food but for a job. (Will work for minimum wage to support my family), I thought about how often I see something and think that I am glad it isn't me in that situation, forgetting that at any given moment one thing could make all the difference between which side of the sign I see.What about you? Did you ever stop and think how different your life could be if just ONE thing was different? What if you lived in a different city or country, had a different job, a different spouse or family? What if you had children or didn't have any? Imagine if ONE thing in your life you take for granted today was gone tomorrow or if ONE situation you wish you could abandon was suddenly erased from your life.
How different would your life be if you had a different health situation or if you suddenly lost your job, your spouse or your loved ones? What if you had people in your life that were absent or stayed in a relationship instead of leaving it behind? Would you have an entirely different set of circumstances if your relationship with your parents was different? What if you had or had not; abused drugs, furthered your education, developed a relationship with God, said what you said or done what you did?
It's so easy to forget how just a single change can tip the balance and make everything different. I don't know what happened in that gentleman's life to make him resort to holding a sign begging for a job anymore than I know about the people I pass daily whose circumstances may be so different from mine. But I do know that my own situation could and would be vastly different if just a few things changed and maybe that is why when we see others who seem to be down on their luck we need to ask an important question:
What and who really made the difference?
Because like an old Phil Collin's song that reminds us of how often we pretend not to notice or hear, "Oh,think twice it's another day for you and me in Paradise."
...Sometimes we don't recognize the paradise in our own life until we see the absence of one in another's.
None of us is immune to having a circumstance change our life. We are more alike than different, even among those who have had their paradise rocked by a single circumstance. We are all only ONE circumstance away from a very different life.
I know what and who made a difference in my life. How about you?
What ONE thing or ONE person changed everything?
In the summer of 1973, although no one was hiring teachers, I interviewed for a job teaching English and drama at Gustine Junior High. The principal thought I was a real find. He called in the vice principal, who lived down the street in this very small town in the San Joaquin Valley. She agreed, and he hired me on the spot.
ReplyDeleteI asked the principal whether I should call him Mr. Willson or Chuck, and when he told me, "We're pretty much on a first name basis here," I knew I had made a leap into the adult world.
Lynn
www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers