Dirt. Shovel and elbow grease. Need the two to attack the one. LOOKING for the gift. It got buried years ago. Hidden out of fear. Fear also now the reason it is being unearthed. Must find it ASAP, so I work that shovel with ALL I’ve got! No time for delay. Gotta find it BEFORE the expiration date. Not the gift’s…MINE!
Like everyone else, I was given a specific gift at birth to use however I chose. Unwrap it. Explore it. Share it. Did not understand the gift until I reached adulthood. Ignored it throughout parenthood. Was afraid of it. It was noisy and haunted me, following me from house to house and job to job. Relentless, the clamor of this stalker was unceasing. So I BURIED it. Deep-sixed the sucker! Laid it to rest. Out of sound, out of mind. SILENCE!
But alas……silence eventually shattered. The gift called out to me from the deep. Often. Sometimes LOUDLY, which I tried to ignore. Other times it’s roar was soft, subtle & subdued, yet it always left a message, which I never returned. Gave it the cold shoulder and moved along. Too busy with life and the important things: Family, work, the gym, church, ESPN and golf. Didn’t want to add another item to my crowded “To Do” list. Figured this gift came with a ball and chain, that I would be compelled to SIT STILL at a desk for hours and think! I do that at work, did that at school. Both are arduous tasks for me. Ask my boss and any of my teachers….or anyone who knows me.
Then something happened. I aged. Quickly, or at least it seemed that way. Empty Nest Syndrome knocked on the front door, career wound down and the golf clubs rusted. My hearing faded, however the appeals continued. The “Yoo-hoo”s now fell on partially-deaf ears but, with no more life busyness, I had NO MORE excuses. The reality of limited grains of sand trickling thru my hourglass, in concert with being accountable for what I do with the gift, there were just TWO options: use it or lose it. THAT’S when I grabbed the shovel.
Time. Laptop and imagination. Using the two to maximize the one. Unwrapping the gift. Exploring it. Sharing it. No ball and chain…..FREEDOM! In the distance, thunder, then a voice from Heaven that said, simply, “FINALLY!.”