Getting in touch with my sister I asked about a mutual acquaintance who had the boom lowered. The diagnosis has come back and it's cancer. Bad news is something we don't get accustomed to. As often as it might break upon us, in all the forms it can be delivered, we don't ever acquire sufficient armor of protection to deflect the pain when life upends us or those who matter to us.
Life's just not an easy road. It can be essentially smooth and we're thankful for this. We come to be ecstatic with the uninterrupted good stretches as we get wise to the fact they generally don't last.
Almost all of us, at some time or another, eventually hit the rough spots. They're the unmarked locations along our highway surprising us with frost heave bumps, unplanned detours and potholes deep enough to swallow us entire.
There's not always an inn at the wayside when our road emergency comes. We steer or brake as conditions dictate and do our best and sometimes could use an assist.
On the road of life every kind word shared adds a brick to that structure of hospitality we look for off to the shoulder as it becomes imperative for it to be there.
When we find it we benefit from its comfort, hope, help or encouragement. It bails us out when the chips are down. It shelters us to send us out when prepared to again take our place in the stream of traffic.
Kindness in word, backed by considerate and direct action, makes all the difference.
What we give as help to another, when it's their turn to need it, adds invaluably to the road of life which is the one road we travel together.
Ro Giencke - January 23, 2014
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