Monday, April 14, 2014

A Blinking Red Light


I’ve talked about my morning ritual upon rising from my bed each morning in previous posts.  My first stop is to look out the window.  Every now and then, if I’m lucky, I might spot a deer grazing, sometimes two.  Kim and I put bird feeders in our backyard, so now I look to see what type and color of bird we might be feeding.  Being fairly new to Virginia, I’m not that familiar with some species other than a sparrow, a robin, a cardinal or a bluebird.  

 

Overlooking the trees in our backyard, way up the hill and off in the distance, there is a radio tower.  The light blinks on, then off, then on, then off, over and over and over, nonstop and presumably forever. 

 

Then it’s shower time.  I hate it when the water starts out hot, goes to warm and then runs cold.  I mean, come on!  Tough way to begin a morning, right?

 

A Blinking Red Light.  Hot water to warm water to cold water.

 

Kind of like relationships and the stages we might go through in those relationships, and sometimes – sadly – what happens with those relationships.

 

A Blinking Red Light is a warning.  It warns low flying aircraft that if they go too low, they might be in danger of hitting it.  A Blinking Red Light is sort of like a beacon that says, “Hey!  I’m here!  Do you see me?”  Or perhaps more aptly stated, kind of like an “I need you now!” and then an “Everything’s okay, no need for you now!”  Over and over in a pattern that again, presumably lasts forever.

 

Whereas water turning from hot, to warm, to cold is like the beginning to the end.  The warmth is gradually, sometimes suddenly, gone.  Perhaps sort of like passion.  Perhaps sort of like friendship.  Perhaps sort of like love.

 

I sometimes think of my relationship with God as a blinking light.  At times, things are going so very well, so nicely, that I forget.  Sometimes I don’t feel “the need.”  I don’t read, or think of, or meditate, or pray as I should, as I ought, as I “need” to.  But when things don’t go well, when things are rocky, when there is doubt and fear, I most definitely feel “the need.”  I’m literally driven to my knees.

 

How sad is that?

 

Perhaps you can’t “picture” that, but think about it in terms of a relationship you might have . . . or had.  Like the water turning from hot to warm to cold, did that relationship grow in the same direction?

 

Or . . .

 

Think about your relationships with others. 

 

Do you sometimes take that person for granted?  Things going well, at least from your point of view, so there isn’t the need to reach out, to talk with, to be with, to give comfort to?  Then you recognize the distance, the “coldness” and the “lack of light” and suddenly there is the need to reach out, to close that distance, to make amends?

 

Like A Blinking Red Light, we have times in our life when there is light and when there is darkness.  And like the water that starts out hot, and then goes warm and then goes cold . . . well, I would hate for anyone to have a relationship like that.  Real friends, true friends, are hard to come by.  I think we need to do all we can to nurture friendships, to grow relationships and grow friendships, rather than watch them . . . feel them . . . grow cold.  We need to take care of them before they grow cold, before the Blinking Red Light goes dark.  I know it happens from time to time.  I get that.  But I’d rather have one or two close, loving friendships, true giving and supportive relationships, than any that are like insipid lukewarm or cold water.  Something to think about . . .

 

Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!

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Thank you for your comment. I welcome your thought. Joe