Footprints

Footprints

     Time ticked slowly as I sat in the sterile room waiting… My eyes wandered around the room, curiously in search of something that would hold my attention and occupy my bored mind. Finally, they rested on the signage strategically placed within eyeshot of a waiting patient. I read each one. All were reminders of ways in which one could be more courteous to the practice. One example stated: Please do not place dirty diapers in the trash. Please ask for a bag, if needed, and we will gladly provide you with one.

     Within seconds, I had finished reading the signs and I began to fidget. Once again, boredom was overtaking my attempt to entertain myself. I glanced towards the door in hopes that I would hear footsteps and a gentle knock to alert me that the doctor was preparing to enter the room. I listened carefully to… silence. I was there to see the doctor long enough to be able to refill a prescription that I am required to take daily. I hoped that I would not have to wait very long.

     Then, I noticed a mirror on the back of the door that held a reflection of a wall hanging. I turned my head and discovered that it hung only a few feet away from the chair where I was sitting.

A Moment Of Longing and Escape

     I gazed into a picture of a beach scene. The sky was dotted with an array of dark gray clouds that tried to hide the brightness of a determined afternoon sun. And then my eyes fell on the focal point of the scene, which was a sandy pathway leading from somewhere (probably wherever the artist had been positioned to create the piece) between a couple of sand dunes and onto a shoreline that overlooked a calm ocean and a low tide. The pathway was filled with footprints and suddenly I longed to be on that pathway heading towards the shoreline. The beach is my happy place where I can relax and forget every care I have in this world.

Lessons From Wall Decor

     As I began to slip into what might have been a fun daydream, the doctor wrapped lightly on the door and my attention was turned to the matter at hand, getting through the doctor’s examination and going to the lab to have a tube of blood drawn.

  The footprint laden, sandy path intrigued me and left me thinking about life. Routinely and possibly at times, robotically, I walk through life leaving my footprints behind. Many times I leave those footprints without realizing how I might have influenced a friend in which I just spent a few hours venting my frustrations or how I ignored the retail clerk or the waitress talking on my cell phone instead of properly greeting and sharing with the person who is spending his/her time serving me. Often I don’t consider my words or my actions when I am interacting with others. My focus is not where it should be. My attention is elsewhere; instead of on the person or activity that has presented itself during that particular moment in time. As I pondered those footprints left in the sand, it made me think of the invisible ones I leave each and every day as I walk through my established routines. The footprints I am leaving are not as noticeable to the eyes as the ones left in the sand by beach goers, but they might be just as visible to others when they remember our encounters.

     Awareness is an insightful tool that can help us grow and change. In making the connection of sandy footprints and the footprints that I leave behind each day, I have been challenged to live my life in a way that I might be a blessing to other people as I leave those invisible prints along the pathway that I walk each and every day. I make a choice every second that I breathe. I can choose to be kind and attentive to others, showing God’s love and compassion to those in which I make contact or I can choose to be self absorbed and live a life full of hatred and negatively impact those in which I make contact. The choice of every interaction is up to me.

Where Are You Leaving Your Invisible Footprints?

  Now my question to you, my reader, is how does your set of footprints impact others? Have you considered your journey through life and how the footprints you leave each day are impacting others? I would like to challenge you to become more aware of the footprints you are leaving and think of ways that you can make a difference in someone else’s life.

     The bottom line is that we all leave invisible footprints. The Lord gave us the choice of how we choose to live our lives. Are the invisible prints you are leaving inspirational or destructive to those you touch on your pathway? Think it over.

     Please share your thoughts and comments on this topic. I would love to hear how you or someone you know is making a difference in the lives of others.