The alarm would scream 'Wake Up Wake up' and I would open my eyes to face a pastel pink wall. The day would progress slowly and at the end of the day I would go to sleep facing the same plain wall. To spruce up the wall and add some color to it, my buddy and I went to an art store, picked up a roll of satin ribbon, a few miniature clothes hanger clips and hooks.
Being a person who loves company, I wanted to do something that would remind me of all the wonderful people I have in my life, who are geographically distant, but close at heart. We decided that it would be best to put up photos of family, and friends whom we do not meet on an everyday basis. As we selected the photos we recalled the memory behind the photo. The time I first met a friend on a bus ; The reason why someone is missing from the group etc were discussed and what started as an hour long project to spruce up a wall, ended up being an evening long project full of memories.
We are an average of the people around us, those who make our lives. They may not be near and it might be almost impossible to talk to them on a daily or even monthly basis. Yet when we look at our lives, we will see that they have left their impressions on the sands that we have trudged. There are some whose foot steps may coincide with ours again, some we may never see again, some are yet to tread these sands with us.
When we feel forlorn we can see and derive inspiration from the footprints of those who tread with us. When we look ahead and see a vast expanse of sand and no foot prints on it, we should remind ourselves to hold strong and walk the path and realize that there are others traversing the sands whose paths will coincide with us.
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time ;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
- Henry Longfellow
