My uncle, over the past couple of years, has been sending out randomly scanned photographs of my grandparents to the family.  My grandparents were wonderful people. They truly were. They touched thousands of lives during their long journey here on earth.  They endured incredible hardships and battles as well.  I love the photos and each time I see them I can hear my grandfather’s voice, his beautiful whistle, and my grandmother’s unique vocal character especially how she said my name.

I have OFTEN said that every single person and circumstance that has crossed in to or across our life path are now an important thread in the fabric of who we are.  I still totally believe that.  I learned that lesson from my grandfather.  Not in those words for those are mine that my spirit was able to finally put together to express some of what I learned from this amazing man.  Even our pets have made a profound impact.  By removing any of these threads we weaken the strength and integrity of the fabric and of who we are.  By ignoring them we, in essence, tear out that thread.

Have you ever been laying there in bed, trying to sleep, and found your fingers playing with a loose thread in the quilt?  They are usually tough almost fishing-line thread.  Very hard, and ‘hurty’ if we wrap them around our fingers and try to pull them out.  But eventually we do pull them out and unfortunately the integrity of the blanket has now become compromised beyond the point of no return. 

That is what it is like when we ignore or try to rip out any part of our life journey, any person, and any circumstance, which we have encountered.  We discredit the importance and the impact they or it made on our hearts, our souls, our spirits, our nature, emotions, memories, and our human integrity.  We expect much from our relationships with other humans.  They need to live up to our expectations or they suddenly are not worthy of being in our inner circle. 

And in the same respect we often fail to realize the impact we have made on others.  Too often we fail to recognize the size and importance of our very own fingerprints upon humanity and this present world.  We also put a lot of pressure on ourselves for not living up to our own expectations.  Our lives have not worked out the way we thought they would or how we planned.  Maybe the world did not change to suit our needs so we reach down and start pulling out threads, causing minor holes at first but then losing more and more of the threads until a square is gone, then another, and another.  Each thread in the fabric having a significant impact on the person we see in the mirror and on the choices we make.

I know that some of your threads are negative.  They have been abusive, cheating and set out only to deceive you.  Some just wanted something from you and gave nothing in return.  There are threads that we have tried so hard to forget but whose pain and torment haunts us every waking moment.  We can’t run far enough away – we can’t hide from it – it’s always there.  So we try to pull them out and eventually what happens is that we lose our own identity and purpose.  We totally lose sight of any purpose for our existence.  When we lose enough of the threads in our very own fabric we lose ourselves.  We become lost, lonely, scared – seeking a way to totally destroy the now worn quilt of our own existence.

But if every person and circumstance that you have encountered in your life truly does make up the person you are today – how many threads in the fabric of others has your name on it?  Do you know the impact you have made on others? 

My grandfather knew he made an impact because it was his gift to humanity for the positive impacts people made on him…and sometimes it was his response to the negative as well.  He was a good soul – a giving soul – a soul who knew the power of the spoken word.  He was a man who believed and lived as though every single soul was worthy of life and of life in abundance.  Sound familiar?  It’s on purpose:  Christ came so that you may experience life in abundance as well.  Stop yanking on those threads and start living again.