I once asked an older man what he had learned in the last 20 years now having both children and grandchildren. His answer was humbling and helpful. Without hesitation or stutter, he simply said “My life is not about me.”
When I came across this poem by Will Allen Dromgoole written in 1898, it reminded me of that moment and how our souls long to live life for something more than ourselves. Read and Reflect:
An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man”, said a fellow pilgrim, near,
“You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide, —
Why build you this bridge at the eventide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head:
“Good friend, in the path I have come”, he said
“There followeth after me to-day
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”
REFLECT:
- What are you doing to live your life for the good of others?
- What can you change in your lifetime that will make an impact on your children’s children’s children?
- Can you imagine your descendants 200 years from today and what they are living for?
*Building The Bridge by Will Allen Dromgoole from Rare Old Chums page 83.
