Every day, I drive down a lovely little lonely lane called Seven Springs Road. And just about every time I do, there is a vehicle parked in a particular bend of the road, because someone has come to fill up their plastic containers with the water that pours out of the wall of rock. This morning was no exception.
The water is good, yes. It is pure and clean, and tastes like no water you have ever tasted in your life.
But it is inconvenient.
Wal Mart, Kroger, and Target all have bottled spring water, and what’s more, you can pick it up at the same time you are buying Band-Aids, bananas, and baby diapers. Wherever you fill up your car with gas, you can grab a bottle when you go in to pay.
Convenience. I love it.
But the Seven Springs for which the road is named carries only one type of “merchandise”. You have to know this area pretty well to know that it’s even there. The water is free, but it’s a long drive out here for most people. There’s no place to park except in the lane, where people have to drive around you to get through. (No big problem, as there isn’t any traffic to speak of.) Yet people come, and come again and again.
Aren’t we a little bit like those springs? Oh, we can do lots of things, and we can do some of them well. But when you really try to talk about who you are (not what you do, but who you are), it seems to me that maybe there’s just one thought that really sums it all up. What do you have that is your gift to the world? Isn’t there something about you that keeps people getting in their cars and driving many miles just so that they can drink from that unique spring that is you?
I think there is. And once you discover it and give yourself fully to it, you will experience life in a wonderful new way. Maybe you already have. I’d love to hear about it.
I have known for years that you were awesome and the insights reflect what I saw many years ago. Keep writing
Thank you, John. I learned much from you! “Keep writing” — right back at you!