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Step Over the Pebbles

Introduction

“It’s easy to trip over a pebble but difficult to trip over a mountain.”  Those words spoken by our Past District 61 Governor Jack Gammon, made me think of how easily we allow problems to stop us along the path to achieving a greater goal.

When we allow problems to stop us instead of focusing on the greater goal, then we trip over pebbles as we lose sight of the mountain.  I tripped over a pebble in school and later learned to step over pebbles as I coped with losing a close family member.

School

I always enjoyed school and I loved math.  In the summer holidays before Grade 9 I dreamed about studying Honors math.  Just imagine a young boy’s excitement at the prospect of solving advanced trigonometry equations for a whole year!  Wow!  I couldn’t wait for summer to end and school to start so I could bath in Honors math!

Well, Grade 9 started but instead of offering Honors math, the school dropped it so some of my /classmates studying for their honors in recess/ could scrape through Basic math.  They made me take Matriculation math.  I was livid.  That was my Honors math.  I worked for it.  I earned it.  My classmates didn’t!  They stole my dream of Honors math and I hated them for it - recess specialists!  I hated my teachers too and in my infinite, teenage wisdom, instead of striving for the outstanding marks I was capable of, I decided to stop working at school.  I took a rebellious ride downhill/ until I graduated 3 years later by just one mark.  In my effort to hurt my teachers by not applying myself to their work, I only hurt myself.  I showed them all right.  I showed them how I could trip over the pebble of honors math instead of climbing the mountain of learning.

Mother

Years later, I faced what seemed like another mountain in my life.  I learned my Mother in Nfld was seriously ill with cancer, in the hospital, disoriented and unable to speak from the cancer therapy.  I traveled from Ottawa to see her and, upon my arrival, a miracle.  The day I arrived her condition completely cleared up and we shared a special time together.  We talked and laughed about life; our past; our present; and even started planning our future.

But as soon as I returned to Ottawa, Mom’s health went downhill again.  Within a month, she left this world at age 55.

She never knew this but having lived much of my youth on Social Assistance and in subsidized housing, all I wanted in my life was to build her a house she could call her own.  Now, even that dream, was stolen from me.

I could have blamed doctors, blamed life, blamed anybody, but this time I chose not to as I realized bitterness would not bring her back.  I knew she would say something like, “Son, my passing is only a pebble.  Don’t trip.  Step over and reach for the mountain of your potential.”  My Mother is gone but she’s alive in me, not as sad memories, but as deeply satisfying memories, memories of who she was; her beliefs, her unwavering values.  You see, much of who she was is now a part of me and having achieved that, Mom reached her mountaintop.

Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen, through school and my Mother’s passing I learned that life is not always fair.  At birth, the nurse didn’t thrust in my face a certificate saying, “Life is fair, satisfaction guaranteed.”  There are no such guarantees.  In this one life of ours it’s not whether we experience disappointments but how we respond to them that makes the difference.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. moved the hearts of millions, when he said, “We’ve got some difficulties ahead but it really doesn’t matter to me now because I’ve been to the mountaintop... and I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land.”

Take a close look at your life.  Have you lost sight of your mountaintop for the sake of a few pebbles?  Do resentment or bitterness hold you back?  If they do, decide right now to step over those pebbles.  Stay focused on your mountaintop until you can/ look over and see/ your Promised Land.

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