Watch Out for Flying Bricks

Watch Out for Flying Bricks

Handles Water Music.

Having spent almost the whole of this new year in pain after my fall on the second day of the year. No I had not been indulging in too much of the festivities. I had a accident in the dark while going to my friend motorhome for evening meal. I tripped over a guy rope on my awning. I broke at least one rib and badly damaged my arm. On top of that I have had a cold I cannot throw off and coughing has brought added pain. Yesterday I eventually visited the doctor who has given me a course of antibiotics to at least stop the coughing. 

The upside of all of this, there is always an upside toe everything, is that I have had time to settle down, slow down, and give some serious thought to what I am going to be doing this year. Well that which I will have some control over. How easy it is to just rush around hoping that everything will be well.

Reminds me of the story of the young man with the new car.

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new shiny sports car. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the car's door! He slammed on the brakes and drove the back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car, shouting, “What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing?

That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money.
Why did you do it?”
The young boy was apologetic. “Please mister … please, I’m sorry… I didn’t know what else to do,” he pleaded.
“I threw the brick because no one else would stop…”
With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car.
“It’s my brother,” he said.
“He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.”

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.”

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out his fancy handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.

“Thank you, thank you so very much,” the grateful child told the stranger.

Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the little boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the pavement, toward their home. It was a long, slow walk back to the not so pristine car. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: 

Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!

We are all in danger of needing the odd brick, to make us stop and think. Nature whispers to us in so many ways to slow down and listen.

 It’s our choice: Listen to the whisper … or wait for the brick!

Todays painting ,unlike the one I showed yesterday, sold on the very day I finished painting it. It seemed to speak to a person who saw it that day as I showed it to my friends. He had never ever in his life considered purchasing an abstract, but this one spoke to his inner man. Now when he told me what it meant to him it was miles away from what I had been thinking while I painted it and listened to the music that inspired it. Each to their own.