I find myself the grateful beneficiary of the choices of others.
It’s been like that all my life.
My parents, teachers, heroes, and friends.
They all made choices that built me.
and so…
I find myself the grateful beneficiary of the choices of others.
This really dawned on me the other morning…
Once upon a time in Ohio, a young man decided to become a doctor and to study Oncology.
I presently find myself the unbelievably grateful beneficiary of that decision.
I asked my Doctor about that this week, as I sat in an exam room on a bench with crinkly paper.
I wanted to know the story behind the decision that now is part of my story.
He sat down and told me and Diana a beautiful real story of hope and a choice to be a helper.
I needed to know.
My question was simple, How did your story become part of mine?
I’m so very thankful for his choice and for his story.
Whether we realize it or not, we are all beneficiaries of the choices of others.
AND…
Others can be the beneficiaries of our choices.
That is the way that life is supposed to work.
Our stories are meant to intersect and become part of a bigger story.
We are shaped by the stories of others.
Sometimes we are saved by the stories of others.
There are no solo stories. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.
The longer we live the wider our story becomes, not because of our achievement or attributes, but because we become absorbed into the stories of others.
Our choices help script the stories of others, and their choices script ours.
Story also means that the loved ones who we have lost are never really lost.
The parents, teachers, heroes, and friends.
We carry their stories.
We continue their stories.
I find myself the grateful beneficiary of the story of another man.
I’m so very thankful.
carbonated joy 