When paths cross, what are we to do?
When paths cross
When paths cross, what are we to do?
A morning walk in Fayetteville, AR, showed me amusing, enlightening intersections of paths.
The path of deciding
Sun was not yet visible yet the sky had opened to soft uncolor before bright yellow against calm blue. As I walked from residential streets into downtown, a crow perched on the curb’s edge twenty feet ahead. Its blackness had a deep purple-navy sheen. Its green-yellow eyes focused on an earthworm making its wiggly way from the street to the curb, oblivious to what awaited.
My conscience wrestled over whether to interrupt their drama, to save one’s life and extend the other’s hunger. At that moment the crow saw my approach, made four hops backward across the sidewalk. Its eye bounced from me to worm to me to worm. The crow was intent on staying safe and not missing a meal. The worm was intent on making it to the curb and the grass beyond.
Crow cocked its head, maybe confused, as I walked by and said, “Good morning! This is between you two.”
The path of admiring
Three blocks later I was at the city square: once Town Hall, still surrounded by beautiful shrubs and flowers. A man my age (I guess) rode by on his 10-speed. His hair and beard were matching gray, as if the faded blend of his white tee shirt and his black nylon shorts. His helmet, too, was black and white.
He pedaled steadily around the square, not fast. Into each corner he leaned carefully and kept his eyes ever on the road 20 yards ahead. He lapped the square four times as I walked along but one side. As we passed each other the fourth time, he lifted his gaze and smiled. I said, “Good morning! Good riding!”
I wonder how many more square laps he rode.
The path of gratitude
Some steps later, I was almost “home”. A cricket no bigger than my fingernail moved across the walk ahead of me. I paused to decide whether to wait and let it cross or to step ahead and remove its worry. I stepped ahead. As I had done for the crow and the rider, I smiled. And said, “Thank you for signing my morning walk!”
When paths cross: a prayer
Preparer of our Paths, we really are blessed
when another’s path crosses ours.
Need not be a human being and it is special
when it is.
The opportunity to share a greeting
or a smile or merely a nod of the head that recognizes
their existence and that it makes us glad and truly blesses us.
And lets us remember the beauty of our being,
of our existence, of our prosperity that this life is.
And when our path crosses that of some creature,
we get to acknowledge that the beauty of life
is not ours alone, is not for us only.
Thank you, Giver of this life, for the network of paths
we get to walk and follow and cross throughout our time.
And so it is. And so we choose to let it be. Amen
Love and blessings,
11 October 2018
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