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An Inspiring Story - The Present Moment
by Kristin Andress
They congregated by the marker representing the measure of a life. Some knew
each other. Others were strangers. Each was from a piece of everywhere. All
were beckoned to be present.
Joy Parson invited them, her invitations having arrived in olive colored envelopes,
the cards embossed with a dove, seeking an RSVP to participate in a Present
Moment. Included was a handwritten note, “An answer of ‘no’
is the only thing in life that is currently impossible. It is simply time to
begin.”
When Marion, the long-retired children’s librarian of a not-on-the-map
Missouri town read the note while sitting home alone, her eyes welled with tears.
This was her phrase, a response to those students – and often Joy Parson,
recently widowed – when they lacked confidence to read aloud and join
in a game. She knew once they started, they would be able to continue. She leaned
back at her kitchen table and smiled as she remembered Joy on the outskirts
of the story hour group, often told she could not sit beside a fair-haired beauty
and her sidekick. Joy would simply reply, “There are many choices of seats.”
When Paul Parson, Joy’s brother-in-law, received the odd invitation,
he was painfully reminded of his brother’s death only two months earlier.
He sat on his porch swing in Georgia and began thinking as he so often did…if
I only would have more actively connected with his life….Maybe he would
have reunited with our dad. Maybe he would have understood my respect for his
service to our country. If only I would have…
In voicing his lament to Joy by telephone one evening, she considered it briefly
and replied, “It is true…we cannot turn back time and there aren’t
many do-overs. The longer we ask why and what if, the longer it takes to get
on with what now. I realized this one morning when Mom and I had coffee at the
Riverside Café and watched the current flow. Mom said, “Like us,
the water carries with it the silt of all that was upstream. You know, nice
thing is, at the mouth…it lets it all go. Isn’t that something?
To start with the present stuff of every new day?”
And there, was planted the seed of the Present Moment idea.
Among the ten people gathered at Joy’s invitation, Paul Parson stepped
forward first, performing this role at his sister-in-law’s request. He
said, “I had a brother …and he is gone. While he lived, however,
he did so in the present moment. And, he did not postpone Joy.” Paul reached
for the hand of his brother’s wife, and bowed slightly to encourage Joy
to arrive front and center.
Joy Parson looked at the eclectic assembly of family, friends, and even one-time
foes, a congregation that represented the culmination of contributions to her
life. No one who was supposed to be present was absent. Their value had not
suddenly dawned on her. The knowledge emerged…and it continued.
Joy began, “It is easy to focus on what is sad in our current worlds,
but that’s not why we are here. Because each of you in a uniquely significant
way has molded all of me, I created this opportunity to thank you…and
to trigger old and create new memories of all that is fine among us. Many of
you have never met, yet we have all seen each other because we are connected
through the experiences of who we are. Together, I ask all of you to join me
in celebrating this Present Moment.”
She reached out and touched the warm wood of the marker representing the measure
of a life. “Because of the past, I have the presence of a legacy…and
it is because of you. Collectively, you enabled me to understand who I am. I
hear your voices echo as I tell you that because of your role in my life I am
a person who:
- Has an identity begging for a soapbox on which to stand (thank you teacher)
- Knows I have no right to NOT share my gifts with the world (thank you coach)
- Has a future that is too focused to include the sidetrack of anyone’s
commentary (thank you believer)
- Enjoys a mission bigger than my job (thank you mentor)
- Persists despite the ‘stuff’ in my path (thank you confidante)
- Is never alone – and knows it (thank you friend)
- Knows I am needed and loved no matter what (thank you family)
Joy continued, “I am also a person….who is now a mother.”
All eyes followed Joy’s as they traveled to the sight of new love. Having
snuck silently to the back of the congregation, Joy’s mom and dad led
a young Romanian-become-American boy to the front where she bent and kissed
him.
Wiping her tears, Joy looked at her adopted son, “Meet my son, Nicklaus
Kent Parson.” And to her son, she whispered, “Stand tall, as we
practiced.”
Nicklaus moved his thin frame to stand at attention, his narrow shoulders against
the marker - a blank white wall in the paisley curtained kitchen of his new
home. Joy raised the ballpoint pen in her hand, a wand with which to measure
the height of a beginning and a continuation of life and growth. Above his dark
hair, she drew a line and wrote, “Nicklaus, age 8”, and knelt beside
him to look in his wide eyes. “Happy Birthday, Nicklaus,” she paused,
“standing before you are your gifts.”
Joy stood and turned to The Gifts. “These people are the ingredients
of all that is best in me. It is now up to me to return their presence –
by bringing to bear my own. I share their voices and their hearts with you today.”
Joy hugged her son, overwhelmed by the love and the responsibility yet knowing
he came from a village, to a community. And, in front of him were the people
– the pillars – who would help to see him through this life as they
had done for her.
Paul Parson stepped forward and gently took his nephew’s hand. “My
dream for you is that you recognize that life trespasses, and you have it within
you to forge on. I hope, in the name of my brother, that sometime when you are
walking down the street you see a bow-legged man with a shock of white hair
and are struck by the essence of a man you did not meet, but with whom, you
are forever connected. What really remains for infinity is the spirit of his
gifts that continue to ripple to you through your mom.”
One by one…they stepped forward, and in the Present Moment, said words
and blessings over the head of this world-weathered boy so new to their lives,
and accepted upon entry.
“I hope you are like the person who puts a flag on my father’s
grave each Memorial Day, whoever he may be.”
“Just be who you are bound to become. There is no better bulls-eye for
living!”
“You will continue to achieve what only you can with the talent of your
smile.”
“Instead of candy, collect books.”
“I know you will realize the small stuff matters and when you pile on
the tidbits it amounts to a ton.”
“I pray you never have to pay attention to the ring of, “I wish
I would not have” in your ears.”
“I expect you to care about the timing of your pushing up daises, because
you crave investing a ‘whole’ life planting them.”
“I am positive you will embrace the fact that one person’s choice
to make a difference - if only a dent – matters.”
“Make your life matter – to you, and to others.”
Nicklaus Kent smiled at The Gifts, his eyes shining with their hopes and his
unknown possibilities, and Joy whispered in his ear, “Someday, when you
know the language, you will understand. This is a Present Moment.”
Copyright 2006 - Kristin Andress
If you want to hear more from Kristin and her amazing writing please contact
her at: info@andressconsulting.biz
or visit her website at http://www.andressconsulting.biz
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