“Take a good look at it, Walker,” Timothy said,
gazing at the empty shelves that lined the walls of
the basement. “A beautiful library with no books. My
life’s work. A beautiful desk that nobody uses to
work or write on. But all of it was taking steps in a
very different direction, you know.”
“Yes,
I do,” Walker replied. “Lisa told me about all of
the people you’ve helped.”
“Helped?
I don’t know about that. Pushed along, maybe. They
were all good men and women, and I felt it was my duty
to give back to this world that’s given so much to
me. So instead of giving them a fish, I taught them to
earn the money to go to the market and buy all the
fish they need. It’s been very gratifying, Walker, I’ll
tell you. Lisa looks at it and sees the ten people I’ve
helped, but I can’t tell you what it feels like
inside to have helped. There’s no substitute for the
feeling I’ve gotten, knowing that I was helping
others and contributing in my own small way to the
world. I’ve helped to shape people into the drawers
or shelves they were meant to be.”
“What
do you mean?”
“Look
at it this way—before any of this wood became parts
of the shelves or the desk or the chair, all of it was
in pieces—just pieces of wood. But the wood was full
of potential.
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"It could be shaped into anything that a
carpenter wanted it to be shaped into, turning it into
a beautiful finished product. Now, not all carpenters
are equal in skill—you know that. If a piece of wood
is shaped by a poor carpenter, the finished product
will be lacking somehow, in some way.
"But
if that wood is shaped by a master carpenter, then
that piece will fit into this world precisely as it’s
supposed to fit, whether it be a desktop or a cabinet
shelf or a doorstop. And the way that I work wood is
the way I try to work with people—with love and
attention and caring—so that the wood and the people
can reach their potential. And if someone lets you
teach them, and is open to what you have to teach,
then how can you go wrong?”
Walker
and Timothy sat quietly for a very long time. “Why
do so many people make it so hard for anyone to help
them or to love them?” Walker asked finally.
Timothy
chuckled. “Ah, Walker—if I could explain all of
humanity’s foibles, I’d be a rich man indeed, at
least as far as money goes. I believe people are like
that because of fear. They fear being loved because
they fear that if they’re loved, they’ll have to
love back. And if they love back, they may get hurt.
And many people aren’t ready to put their hearts on
the line like that. Mostly because they don’t
have anything to fall back on. It’s quite a shame,
really, because they hurt themselves by trying to
avoid getting hurt. But we have to be willing to die
many times if we’re ever going to get on with this
business of living.”
“What
do you mean, ‘willing to die’?” asked Walker,
very confused by the words.
“That,
my friend, is something that you have to learn all by
yourself. We die many deaths all through our lives, if
we allow ourselves to move on. If we’re unwilling to
move on, of course, we die no deaths, and we never
remake who we are, never move on to the next level.
Some people call it being born again, and others call
it letting a part of you die. Either way, it’s
leaving something behind as we move on with life.”
“Someone
once told me that before I would be ready to stop my
journey and turn around and search for something in my
past, I would have to be willing to give up who I am
and become something else.”
“It
sounds like that someone was very wise. But remember,
just because you become something else doesn’t mean
that you leave everything behind. If you become a
husband, you leave behind your focus on yourself and
open up a focus on others, but you still bring with
you all the traits that you’ve developed over the
years. We all have many beautiful qualities, and many
people feel that if they change their lives, they’ll
have to leave behind all that’s beautiful, all that’s
fun, all that they love. But nothing could be further
from the truth—they leave behind all that has been
holding them back and take those things that help them
move on. What’s holding you back, Walker?”
Walker
shook his head slowly. “I don’t know,” he said.
“I don’t feel a pull from behind—I feel a
barrier up ahead, and I don’t know what it is.”
“You
will,” Timothy replied. “One day, you will.”
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