My Life As A Rock

I started my life on the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean down below. I spent most of my days basking in the sun with the lite breeze gently going over my jagged body. There was a beautiful tone that my rough edges resonated every time the Wind blew that was so peaceful and calming. As the Wind blew, I could hear it's small still voice tell me that I was loved and things were OK and it would always be there with me. I was happy.

One day, without warning, I rolled off the edge of the cliff and plummeted to the earth far below. I rested right on the beach just out of reach from the oceans cold waters. I had no idea why I had just been taken from my warm safe environment and hurled down so far to be close to the roar of the ocean. I was scared and confused. Thoughts raced through me. "Why me? What's going to happen to me? How am I going to make it?" Question after question. I spent so much time consumed by my circumstance that I could no longer hear the small still voice of the Wind telling me, "I am with you, every thing's going to be ok."

Day after day I lay there. Self agonizing over how unfair it was that I was no longer in my safe place. Then it happened. Storm clouds started rising over the horizon of the ocean. I had seen this before from the top of my cliff. Storm clouds would show up first followed by rain. On the cliff, the Wind let me know that rain was to cleanse me of all the droppings that life had blessed me with. Rain was a good thing. I found out quickly, that when the storm clouds rolled over the horizon on the beach, it was a different story.

I lay there in the middle of my first storm. Wave after wave crashing down on me. My jagged edges rebel every wave as they hit me. Water splashes in every direction as I stand in my rebellious form not letting the life of the storm take me. Wave after wave, I fight it. "This is unfair!" I spray with each crash of discourse that comes down on me sending water in every direction. "Why me?!" I think over and over as the storm doesn't seem to let up. I can see no end to this horrible abuse that now has taken over me that I can do nothing about, but rebel.

Then the storm passed.

I spent all of my days after that first storm trying to figure out what happened. What could I have done to change the storm? How could I have made the waves go in another direction? How could I have avoided the storm? What will I do next time when the storm happens?

I now spent all of my days consumed with the storm. I could think of nothing else by how I couldn't believe this could happen to me. This was not how my life was supposed to be. I spend so much time here, that I can no longer hear the Wind.

Storm after storm crashes down on me. The same result every time. My rough edges rebel with everything they have. Day after day, month after month, year after year. Life just keeps pounding down on me and I have nowhere to go. I am no longer happy, I am sad.

I don't know why it happened, but after this one particular storm, the most brutal of all, I sat there for the first time and just did nothing. I sat on the beach. I didn't complain. I didn't cry out. I didn't get lost in self pity. I just sat there and an amazing thing happened. I heard the Wind.

"Why have you forgotten about me?"

At that moment I remembered back to the cliff when the Wind would speak to me all of the time when I was happy.

"You left me!" I quickly exclaimed!

"I never left you. I was with you when you fell, talking to you the whole way down. I was with you on the beach, talking to you every day. But most of all, I was screaming for you in every storm telling you that everything was going to be ok. I was with you always. You, however lost focus on me. You focused only on you. I never left you, you forgot about me. I am here, I will always be here. I love you"

The Wind was right. I was the one that forgot. I was so wrapped up in me and how everything was wronging me, that I couldn't hear the Wind longing to comfort me in even the greatest of storms.

A funny thing has happened since I started listening to the Wind more. My rough edges aren't so rough anymore. Don't get me wrong, there are still storms, but now they just seem to roll off my smooth surface.

The Wind had been changing my heart with every storm. I couldn't hear him, but He was there, shaping me into the precious stone that I am, the one that was always there, but just needed some polishing.

Listen for the Wind.

Blessings