A Heavy Cross To Bear

It seems like the world often works itself out in very weird little ways for me.

You see, the past few days have been a little taxing as I have made the transition from a somewhat typical five day work week to a little less common four day work week made up of four 10-hour shifts.

I have been surprised to find that starting my day two hours earlier has proved to be rather difficult. After working the same shift for three years I have settled into a routine. Now that routine has changed and it is certainly taking some getting used to.

Anyway, I tell you that to tell you this. In addition to the new schedule, I've been dealing with a mammoth amount of trepidation about the future. I tend to get worked up about who I am and where I am going from time to time (as all of us do) and today I began to crack.

That is, until I went to Caldwell to get a few shots of the construction of a new community college. On my way there I saw an unusual sight that caught my eye. There was a man walking along the side of the road carrying a ten foot wooden cross. Like many passing motorists I slowed down to take a good long look at what was going on.

I literally said, "hmm, don't see that every day" and kept driving. I thought about it for the next 10 or 15 minutes and then decided "what the heck, I'm sure he has an interesting story, why not go listen to it". So I did.

I circled back around the block from where I saw him last and found him as he was sitting down to rest for a minute.

I sat with him for about 20 minutes listening to him tell me stories from the last 20 years where he claimed to have walked thousands of miles to "remind people that the good lord died for their sins and through him they can have ever lasting life".

I wasn't inherently interested in what he had to say about his religious beliefs but the thing that I found surprising was that I actually enjoyed listening to him talk. He had some pretty interesting stories to tell of his endeavors over the years and for some reason I found his humble message pretty refreshing.

People walk for miles and miles always in a hurry to get somewhere. Today I met a guy who walked for miles and miles to go nowhere in particular. It made me realize that it's easy to get caught up in where you think you need to be or where it is you should be going but in a lot of cases worrying about it doesn't get you there any quicker.