Kia ora! Our
excellent adventure continues with some thoughts on keeping your corners. As we
have mentioned before, the roads here are narrow and winding. One can travel
for many kilometers without seeing ahead in a straight line. It takes a steady
hand, and deliberate attention to avoid coming into direct contact (crashing)
with oncoming vehicles. When I was teaching, the drive from Salt Lake to
Bountiful would
take approximately twenty minutes, weather permitting. Traveling the same
distance here, due to the topography, takes approximately forty five minutes!
As you can imagine, there is the temptation to “speed” things along by taking
those ever-present curves in a less than prudent manner.
Every day, there are
accidents, some more serious than others, caused by drivers who carelessly take
chances on New Zealand
roads. There is such a concern about this, that the government has erected sign
after warning sign reminding drivers to be cautious. One sign simply says,
“Slow down, what’s the hurry?” Another reminds drivers to think of others. Yet
another suggests simply that other people make mistakes. In amongst all of
these warnings there is one that has kept my attention every since we arrived.
It shows a car on a curve. The car is actually crossing the center line and
there is a large red diagonal bar that slashes across the whole photo. The
warning: “Do Not Cut Corners!”
On our narrow roads
here, that warning is more than prophetic. If you are taking a blind curve
while cutting the corner, the chances of your contributing to a disaster are
pretty high. The message is clear. Cutting corners is dangerous! It’s interesting to note that those caution
signs concerning cutting corners outnumber all of the others two-to-one. It is
ever so much smarter and safer to just follow the rules.
In thinking about
trying not to cut corners, it occurs to me how this rule of the road is also a
wise adage for life in general. Just think of all that we miss when we cut off
the corners! I have a mental image of my home without its corners. Wouldn’t it
fall in on it’s self? Before we left Salt Lake
When I first moved into
my home, there was a woman who lived across the street from me. Barbara had two
children; a son and a daughter and she was raising them as a single mother. In
a horrific act of violence, her husband had been murdered while working the
late shift in a convenience store in another state. Barbara moved home to be
nearer to her mother in an attempt to give her children a life surrounded by
family. I watched, year after year, as this single mother worked tirelessly to
make a good life for her children. I was
impressed that Barbara did not cut corners when it came to providing for her
family. Sometimes, when my husband was not going to be home for dinner, I used
to serve what I called the “Let’s just have a hotdogs or something easy cause
your dad isn’t here for dinner dinner”. The implication being that it wasn’t
really dinner if dad wasn’t home and we were allowed to cut some corners. Does
that make sense to anyone? It did to me at the time. I cut a few corners to
make my life a little easier, or so I thought. By the way, those are not the
dinners that my sons remember.
One day as I was
visiting with Barbara, I told her that I was impressed that she never seemed to
cut corners on meals or during any sort of interaction with her children,
knowing that she did not have the luxury of waiting for her husband to return
to help with the family responsibilities. She told me something that I have
never forgotten. She said that there was a lot of waste in cutting corners and
who is to know what wonderful part of the day is lost by cutting if off. What
an amazing lesson she taught me that day and it’s one that I cherish even now. The
mental image that I carry with me now is one of a jar filled with corners. The
corners are all blank, so I have no idea what they represent or what they could
have contributed. They are all lost opportunities. Those opportunities are gone
forever.
Isn’t it interesting
how a road sign in New Zealand and the memory of a friend from many years ago
now merge to remind me of an invaluable life lesson. Cutting corners is in my
opinion, not a recipe for success. I would rather have all of those corners
included in my life, rather than tossed in a jar somewhere.
As usual, we are happy
and trying to work hard. We are so grateful that we have not been corners that
you have cut from your lives. We are also grateful to a loving Heavenly Father
and Savior who cut no corners where Their love for us is concerned. We appreciate the good examples that you have
set as you attempt to live full and enriching lives. We know that it is never
too late to stop cutting corners and you just never know what you will gain in
the process.
Love, Ward and
Susan Elder and Sister Belliston,
serving in Gisborne , New Zealand
SUSAN,
ReplyDeleteYou have a GIFT...
- To sense Truth,
- To feel it fully,
- And then to be able to communicate it through the written word.
I doubt that there are many who can do all three (as you do) so well.
As for myself, I can do the first two pretty well – that really lack on the last one.
So thanks for sharing your great WISDOM!