Saints and Poets

Okay, so I'm having lunch with a friend at a local diner. We're catching up on our lives since the last time we saw each other, about a billion years ago. We're laughing and enjoying each other's company. An elderly gentleman comes into the dining area with a younger woman. He's having trouble walking. He's so thin it looks like the wind would blow him over. He sits and sort of stares out into space as the younger woman (I'm guessing a daughter or niece) asks him questions. His eyes wander around the room, but never stop to really look at anything. I have no idea what their interaction is, they are too far away to hear, but it doesn't appear to be rancorous. He isn't agitated and she isn't either from my observation.

Right before this guy came in, my friend had been talking about white water rafting (the mere thought of it makes me jumpy) and hiking with her family. Spending time with the people she loves most in the world. What a joy it was for her (and for me, too for that matter--spending time with family is my all time favorite pastime). And here's this guy at the diner who doesn't appear to even be cognizant of his surroundings, let alone who is beside him. It made me sad to see him.

But then, my friend reminded me how fortunate we are to be able to walk and talk and observe the things around us! From the noisy blue jay outside the window, to the yellow and black swallowtail butterfly silently fluttering by to the smell of the garden my husband has been tilling, the wonders of the Lord's world is almost too much to bear. As we shuffle from one problem to another, never lifting our eyes to the Creator we miss so much! When was the last time you were truly grateful for the things which happen in the blink of an eye, like the blink of an eye! How could we possibly remember to thank the Almighty for breath? For vision? For the senses we employ every single minute of every single day?In one of my favorite plays, Our Town by Thornton Wilder, Emily, the deceased young lady asks the Stage Manager, "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" And the sage Stage Manager replies, "No. Saints and poets maybe--they do some."

Let us either be a saint or a poet today and realize the wonderful life we have before us. Before we cannot comprehend  what we are missing or are too tired to pay attention.