Brenneman's World

End of Year - a Reflection

I was reminded about life in several ways this past week. Today a 90-year-old lady fell on a patch of ice in the bitter cold. She was in a fair amount of pain with possibly a broken hip. It had happened so suddenly. Life's like that - it changes in a hurry.

Then there was the emergency fire call to a run-down house heated by a gas stove. They thought they smelled smoke, but apparently it was only dust from the stove pipe. But there were the four children, none of them very old, begging for more food from their daddy's plate. The house was a mess, and the children and their parents lived in an old trailer next door with no electricity other than an extension cord. From other emergency personnel, we learned the father was an alcoholic. It tears a person up to see that type of misery. Our lives often enough are better than we expect.

Monday evening I went caroling with the students. One house was an old man and his wife, backs bent from years of extremely hard physical labor. Yet there they were at the door, savoring every moment of the group's singing. It's easy to overlook what we can do for others.

Somehow this week my life was jolted to a realization that in our hurrying world there are times we can make a difference.

posted by James @ 8:20 PM