Relationships are like streams in the desert, forging friendships of love and respect, bridging cultural, religious, and ethnic differences. My life sings my song of relationships as I pass through this world, the love and acceptance I give to and receive from others.
Relationships are fluid and ever changing. Like the Big Ditch after a heavy rainfall, they can be running full force, carrying a lot of debris downstream. A few days later, the gentle, clean, running brook is back. In a relationship, this high tide of water may be words spoken in haste, seemingly popping out of our mouths before we know it. The gentle waters of refreshment will only return by admitting errors and seeking forgiveness and restoration. What will you gain for such effort? A lifelong friendship which will be a shelter from life’s storms and a platform for life’s triumphs is what we gain. We have very few of these relationships in our lives. My sister Chris and I have the pleasure of this type of relationship. I have learned how rare they are indeed, and treasure ours more each day.
There are streams in the desert which run underground, forming huge aquifers of refreshment. These relationships bring much pleasure when they surface but due to distance, busyness, family responsibilities, and other 21st century living realities, they don’t surface often. I have many of these relationships with people, some live nearby and others quite a distance. They are there for you in thought and prayer but not in deed. I can shift the underground rock formation and have the water spring to the surface with a simple email or phone call.
The oasis of the desert is a place of refreshment. Painting a picture of cool refreshment and escape from the heat, I liken relationships of kindred hearts that cross paths, usually unexpectedly and typically for one time only, such as your fellow traveler on the 747. An hour flight is too short when we encounter a person cut from the same cloth as ourselves yet we usually hesitate to exchange contact information. It’s a moment in time to treasure but is typically fluttering by as a butterfly in a bed of clover. Serendipity.
The rain in the desert brings seemingly immediate results, as suddenly the land is ablaze with yellow and orange flowers. The timid scrub oaks leaf out and the grass greens up as the drops fall on the soil. These relationships may be seen as those ones where we connect at first meeting and within a week, we feel as if we have known them forever. …and we plan to know them always!
I think about the foundation of relationships that are healthy and cherished and the fundamental blocks they are built on. Trust would be important to me. Interested in me and things that are important to me would be a requisite. We would have to have in common the meaningful things of life. A shared feeling of mutual enhancement of one another’s lives. Relationships take t-i-m-e
T time
I interested
M Meaningful
E Enhancement
The greatest gift you can give to anyone is time.
Mimi
