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June 7, 2007
alone in the crowd...
Another response to "reader's requests".... this one is for Misty...
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I look out my umpteenth floor window onto a blanket of trees... every shade of green imaginable... and one stands out... a huge old magnolia tree... covered in white blossoms... visible even from this height and distance... one tree that stands alone in the crowd...
At a beach last summer in Virginia, I walked the shore line and came upon a spectacle that made me laugh out loud... hundreds... no, thousands of conch shells as far as I could see.. fat ones, skinny ones, small ones, medium ones, big ones, even a few very large ones... and I thought I’d hit the gold mine until I realized that they all seemed to be occupied by hermit crabs... and I couldn’t bring myself to steal anyone’s home... so I left them where they lay... and as I walked slowly through them... taking pictures... watching them scitter and scatter... one remained... unmoved... unoccupied... alone in the crowd... until I picked it up and took it home...
She fancies herself invisible... imagines that no one sees her... no one knows her... that she is part of the picture but not part of the substance... that if tomorrow the “without a trace” detectives came here, showing her photograph and asking, have you seen this woman... there would be no one who remembered... even tho for twenty years she has stood in the same place... wrapping their purchases... counting their change... she feels... alone in the crowd...
He walks in the door... takes a seat... spirits temporarily rising with the music... waits... spirits dropping swiftly... watches life swirling around him... gazes brushing past and through him... words sounding around him... laughter... animation... a little anger across the room somewhere... the waitress takes his order without making eye contact, all the while looking around her to see who’s leaving, who’s coming in, whose glass is empty, whose plate is sliding across the table, what she needs to do, where she needs to be next... and he realizes no one knows he is here... no one will know when he leaves... and he feels... alone in the crowd....
And yet... no one is ever truly alone in the crowd... God is there... our Father... our King... our Lord... our Savior... He goes everywhere with us... the good places and the bad... waiting to be noticed... longing to be reached out to... asking to be loved.... to be wanted...
We... sometimes... fancy ourselves invisible... alone in the crowd... and yet if we only looked up to Him... we’d see we never are...
And He... in all His glory... all His wonder... all His splendor... too often truly is alone in the crowd....
One thought leads to another... | By Spiderlillies | 1:22 PM
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Comments
That was great! Thanks.
Posted by: Misty at June 7, 2007 4:31 PM
I loved it. I thought it was great, too. I guess we all, at one time or another, feel alone in a crowd, when actually, we're never alone.
What are the words to the song, "When you walk with the Lord"?
Posted by: B at June 27, 2007 12:13 PM