hoedl's haven - May 15, 2006

Monday, May 15, 2006

A sullen businessman, in his late 50s, in faded jeans with a Bluetooth mounted to his ear - clipping his nails and checking in with the main office. A couple, in their mid 40s, eating breakfast and seemingly oblivious to one another. A woman gingerly playing with her bagel while attempting to solve a customer's concern on her cell phone. Two elderly couples reuniting from two separate flights after several months or years...

This was my experience while indulging in an early morning breakfast at a national airline hub just a few weeks ago; a simple microcosm of the diversity of life journeys intersecting each other every day, every minute, every second of this life. Each life journey seemingly unaware that their life is affecting others and vice versa. It would almost seem that so many of us have collectively come to believe that the only life we can impact is our own, so we stay to ourselves - a life journey continuing in perceived isolation of all others...

Impact; derived from the Latin word meaning "to push against." In examining the word "impact," the most commonly used word associated with it is "impression," as in "the effect or impression of one thing on another." Go ahead and look up the word impact - there is no definition that states that an impact is "the state of altering or changing one thing by another striking/pushing against it." Let's leave the life-altering and journey-changing to a higher force than ourselves for a moment and simply focus on the impact, the impression, of our life on others.

Believe me, my friend, when I say that your life did and does make an impression on so many others. Think of your past week and the number of times you found yourself mentioning to others about the conversations, interactions, discussions, debates (both good and bad) that you experienced in the past week. Someone made you laugh. Someone inspired you. Someone made you angry because their views collided with yours. Someone made you cry, in both good and bad ways. Someone said something that lifted or weighted your spirits. Simply, everyday impressions we make on one another...

Sitting in the airport during that breakfast, I wish I could have told the businessman that there is more to Life than just work. I wish I could have shown the couple that their relationship and love is not something to take for granted. I wish I could have let the woman know that she has more confidence within her than she realizes. And I wish I could have thanked the elderly couples for continuing their friendships through so many years. Instead, I decided to let that moment leave an impression on me and I would take these impressions home with me - to laugh a little more, to love a little more, to be a little more hopeful and to celebrate just a little bit more in my own personal life.

You, my friend, have been given the power and privilege, through your own free will, to make lasting impressions on all others... for the better or for the worse. And it remains your decision. To push against another life, to collide and impact - it's going to eventually happen. Whether your life journey is standing still or moving at a rapid pace, it will impact and be impacted by others. As a friend told once during a game of billiards, "Just smack a ball, it will eventually hit something." And so will your life journey today - it will collide, interact and impact another. But the impression left is entirely up to you.



Monday, May 15, 2006 A sullen businessman, in his late 50s, in faded jeans with a Bluetooth mounted to his ear - clipping his nails and checking in with the main office. A couple, in their mid 40s, eating breakfast and seemingly oblivious to one another. A woman gingerly playing with her bagel while attempting to solve a customer's concern on her cell phone. Two elderly couples reuniting from two separate flights after several months or years... This was my experience while indulging in an early morning breakfast at a national airline hub just a few weeks ago; a simple microcosm of the diversity of life journeys intersecting each other every day, every minute, every second of this life. Each life journey seemingly unaware that their life is affecting others and vice versa. It would almost seem that so many of us have collectively come to believe that the only life we can impact is our own, so we stay to ourselves - a life journey continuing in perceived isolation of all others... Impact; derived from the Latin word meaning "to push against." In examining the word "impact," the most commonly used word associated with it is "impression," as in "the effect or impression of one thing on another." Go ahead and look up the word impact - there is no definition that states that an impact is "the state of altering or changing one thing by another striking/pushing against it." Let's leave the life-altering and journey-changing to a higher force than ourselves for a moment and simply focus on the impact, the impression, of our life on others. Believe me, my friend, when I say that your life did and does make an impression on so many others. Think of your past week and the number of times you found yourself mentioning to others about the conversations, interactions, discussions, debates (both good and bad) that you experienced in the past week. Someone made you laugh. Someone inspired you. Someone made you angry because their views collided with yours. Someone made you cry, in both good and bad ways. Someone said something that lifted or weighted your spirits. Simply, everyday impressions we make on one another... Sitting in the airport during that breakfast, I wish I could have told the businessman that there is more to Life than just work. I wish I could have shown the couple that their relationship and love is not something to take for granted. I wish I could have let the woman know that she has more confidence within her than she realizes. And I wish I could have thanked the elderly couples for continuing their friendships through so many years. Instead, I decided to let that moment leave an impression on me and I would take these impressions home with me - to laugh a little more, to love a little more, to be a little more hopeful and to celebrate just a little bit more in my own personal life. You, my friend, have been given the power and privilege, through your own free will, to make lasting impressions on all others... for the better or for the worse. And it remains your decision. To push against another life, to collide and impact - it's going to eventually happen. Whether your life journey is standing still or moving at a rapid pace, it will impact and be impacted by others. As a friend told once during a game of billiards, "Just smack a ball, it will eventually hit something." And so will your life journey today - it will collide, interact and impact another. But the impression left is entirely up to you.