Give Thanks - a fable

A man walked down a lonely country road, upset at his lot in life, damning himself and those around him. He was in a sad state, lonely, broke and sick. He stumbled along thinking; if I just keep moving eventually I’ll fall down and disappear into the earth, back to the dust from which I came. He shoes were old, with more holes than leather, the dust of the road coating them in a light brown sheen. His pants once were pressed and clean, the result of a trip to the dry cleaner a long time ago but hadn’t seen the inside of a washing machine in some time, the pockets had holes in them it didn’t matter because he had nothing to put in them. He wore an old button down shirt with a sweater against the cold, each belonging to someone else and found for free. To him, it didn’t matter how he looked, there was no one on the road anyway, he could be walking naked for all he cared, and he had nowhere to go. He was playing the blame game in his mind, blaming everything and everyone as he shuffled along. People didn’t help him enough; he’d be farther along if someone would help him. Why is life so hard for him when everyone else had it so easy? He should have more, he deserved more why did everything work against him to take everything he had? What he didn’t realize was that much was happening on that road, what he was missing. As he shuffled along, he didn’t see the red bird sitting in the tree staring at him, a beautiful song sitting on her lips waiting for the right moment to start. When she did start, he was too far along to hear, the only sound he heard was his feet crunching in the dirt. He passed a family of deer sitting still in the trees, the brown of their coat helping them to blend in. Miraculously they went through the morning in the path of hunters but for some reason were never seen, the two small fawns nuzzling at some grass peeking through bits of snow on the ground. They stayed close to their mother, quiet as he walked by. The most amazing part of his journey was right there under his feet. As he walked along he passed a beautiful stone that sparkled in the sunlight, he actually kicked it with his shoe, should have felt the stone through the hole in the front of his shoe but he was so wrapped up in himself that he missed it as he flung to the side of the road to a stop in the grass next to a small clump of snow. The gem was special, it was beautiful, full of color, full of sparkle waiting to be found. The material value of the gem would have set the man in the apartment he was dreaming about, bought him new clean clothes even his favorite pair of shoes, but like all the opportunities in his life he didn’t see what was right in front of him and let it pass him by. He didn’t see that God gave him great blessings, that by focusing on what he could not have he didn’t see what he already had and what was offered to him. He went along that road being selfish, thinking of himself and not letting anyone else in. If he’d stopped and gave thanks, he’d seen that gem, picked it up and call himself a lucky man. If he’d stop and give thanks for his life, he’d see the gem inside of himself and realize that he already was a lucky man. The sun was beginning to set as he continued down that road, the deer ran into the woods settling in a bed of leaves for warmth, the bird flying up to her nest and settling for the night with a sigh. The man walked on, while the gem sat unnoticed until the next lucky man walked by. What gem sits on your road? Are you thankful for the journey?