Sample
of Guidelights (First
Chapter- Overview)
Page 4 of 4
Miles
and Miles for Babies' Smiles
Please allow me a brief digression to illustrate
a final point. I live in a town called Bedford in southwestern Virginia.
Bedford is a small town, but it is not a very long drive to two fair sized
cities, Roanoke and Lynchburg. Roanoke is about 40 minutes away, and Lynchburg,
which is where I work, is about 30. Bedford is a very pleasant place to
live.
My wife, Tammy, and I live in a house just
outside Bedford city limits, out in the country, but not very far. We're
only 10 minutes from "downtown" Bedford. We are new parents
with a 9 month old girl, Samantha. She is the sweetest little baby. We're
lucky because she really isn't too fussy, and she's as cute as can be.
Samantha just smiles all the time. She has light blond hair and light
blue eyes, like Tammy. Tammy is average height, slim, shapely, and attractive.
She's very sweet with a genuine smile. I have dirty blond hair, dark blue
eyes, and a short beard. I'm also average height and on the quieter and
more reserved side.
Today we are going to a cookout at Lindsay
and Dev's, two old friends of ours. Dev's real name is Devin, but everyone
calls him Dev. We get Samantha all strapped into her car seat and head
off to Walmart to buy some things for the cookout. Walmart is THE place
to be in Bedford. The place to see and be seen. We're picking up some
paper plates and an older woman sees Samantha and stops to smile at her.
She smiles and Samantha smiles back. "She's so pretty." She
tells us all about her grandsons. "Maybe they'll date one day?"
We finish shopping. At the checkout, the
checkout girl spies Samantha. She smiles and talks to her.
"What's her name?"
"Samantha," says Tammy
"She's a doll"
By the time we get to Lindsay and Dev's,
the cookout is in full swing. Music is playing, snacks are out. Dev and
another friend, Larry, are drinking beer. We've known Lindsay and Dev
since college. Back then, Dev was dating Lindsay, and I was dating Tammy.
Lindsay and Tammy were friends, and we all just started doing stuff together.
It's mid-September, and the windows are wide open. A cool breeze is blowing
through the house. Dev comes up to me and shakes my hand, "Hey, bud.
How's it going?"
Dev is about 6'1", well built, with
blond hair and blue eyes. We could almost pass for brothers. Dev is a
nice guy, a little flaky, but fun. He goofs around a lot and tells some
wild stories. Lindsay is fairly tall, dark hair, brown eyes, and attractive.
She's a very good person and would help out anyone. Lindsay works in a
day care center looking after babies, and she loves Samantha.
Lindsay swoops up Samantha as we come in
the door and starts bouncing her on her lap and talking to her. She presses
Samantha's hands together and moves them from side to side singing,
"All
the little fishies, swimming in the ocean, swimming in the ocean"
"All the little fishies, swimming in the ocean, swimming in the ocean"
"Bubble, bubble, bubble, splash, splash, splash"
We
cook out burgers and dogs and then sit around the dinner table talking
into the night. Dev and I talk about working out (we're both into weights),
and he tells me about how he's had to lay off for a while because of his
injury. He hurt his leg recently when visiting Lindsay's parents. The
bed in the guest room fell on his leg. That itself is a bizarre and separate
story. One I will not relate here. But Dev was OK. That's Dev in a nutshell.
I said he was flaky- he's also accident prone. He's constantly getting
himself into some kind of trouble, but he always seems to emerge relatively
unscathed.
Another topic of conversation is Samantha.
Everybody just seems to love her. She's so cute and pretty, and she just
smiles all the time. She has a big, pure, genuine smile that you just
can't help but smile back at. When I look at her, I see the pure goodness
of the Light in her heart.
It seems funny that we are born with the
purity of the Light strong in our hearts, and then as we get older, the
purity begins to fade. Some become very selfish with the Good buried deep
within them, a mere ember. But the ember is always there burning, even
if deep inside. It can never be extinguished. Then, as we get older, we
begin to think about the BIG QUESTIONS. What is life all about? What should
I be doing with my life? How can I find fulfillment and happiness? If
we are lucky, we find some answers, and the Light begins to shine strong
again. It seems that we must return to that pure goodness with which we
started our lives, we must return to innocence.
At first blush, this whole process might
seem so futile, but on reflection, although we end where we began, we
do gain something. Through the long process of returning our hearts to
the purity of the Good, we gain an understanding of our own souls. I am
reminded of the words of T.S. Eliot:
[T]o
make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from . . .
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Little
Gidding
The
Four Quartets
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