“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” -Dan Pena
The box pictured above was a gift one of my friends made for me and gave to me this morning. He has cut down trees for a living and this wood used to make this special keepsake box was not bought in a store. This gift was made for me by a man with a heart of gold. I pray for him and his wife nearly every day, not because they need my prayers, but because they are important to me. I pray for so many of my friends nearly every day. This man doesn’t know it, but he inspires and brings joy to everyone around him. He makes our friend group laugh every time we are together. His quick wit and his New England accent and vocabulary bring wicked joy to everyone he encounters. He is authentic, kind and always there for others. He was encouraging me from the day I met him. Though he is moving back up north in a few months, a part of him will always stay in the south, deep in the hearts of all those lives he touched along the way. You wouldn’t know it, but he has experienced traumatic loss, of the worst kind.
I think everyone knows I am a widow, but everyone does not know the pain my friend and his wife have endured in this world. It’s not fair. The loss and trauma we experience in life can be enough to collapse our souls, but the ones who endure and fight to be better versions of themselves every day, despite all odds, who show up to comfort and encourage those around them…these are the people I want to surround myself with in this life.
Surround yourself with the dreamers, the fighters, the believers, the truth tellers; the ones who are willing to speak their truth, who have the courage to live from their heart and not just their head. I have been so touched by my friendship with this inspiring man and the rest of the friends we have here. He doesn’t know it, but he’s a writer. I’ve heard the amazing words he’s put from pen to paper. He doesn’t know it, but there are lives changed because of him, because of his words and because of his humor. He may have cut down trees, but he’s built up God’s kingdom with his kindness.
We never know the true impact we have on others. This is the beauty of life, not what we have bought, but what we built, not in what we got, but what we gave, not in the things we can touch, but in the hearts we have touched along the way. Choose your friends wisely and give love to them freely; they are God’s gift to us in the present. What we do with this gift is how we give back to God.
