Subte Influences

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.

George Eliot

As I was walking through the neighborhood last week, ahead of me turning the corner going in a different direction away from the route I was on, I saw a young kid walking a dog.  What brought my attention to this particular pair was the dog had some type of device attached to his/her body to help it walk.  A harness with wheels on the back end of the dog.  As I continued to watch the two walk away from me I could clearly see the dogs legs sway side-to-side, for some reason, the poor dog’s leg were not working.My thoughts then shifted away from the dog and I started thinking about the young lad walking it.

I started thinking about the lessons that young guy is learning early in his life……How to love something that is not perfect, something somewhat broken…..How to the be patient……How to be compassionate and caring.

I started thinking about his family.  How they’ve raised a child to be caring and loving…….how they’ve invested their life in this creature and provided a support structure to help it live life to the fullest it can….to be loved.

A happenstance encounter I haven’t stopped thinking of since.  The thought of influence.  The thought of the things in front of us everyday have an influence on us…..more especially so, how we think on those things.   The thought of how others may be watching me, unbeknownst to myself, and how I may be influencing them.  How maybe I need to be more intentional on the things I say and do. 

Fast forward a few days….a few days from this encounter.   

I am on another walkabout and I am walking right toward these two, this time, we’re going to cross paths.  It was a meaningful moment for me because I already spent quite a bit of time thinking of the two.   I stopped the young lad and asked him if I could take a picture of them.  I told him they were an inspiration to see and I wanted a reminder of it.  He said yes.    

I was curious, I asked him what happened to the dog.  He told me he didn’t know, which immediately shocked me, until he continued and told me that his family just got the dog last week.  Which in itself was surprising and then even more so when he then told me they went to Dallas, about 280 miles from here, to go get the dog.   Think about that, how many families are looking for that ‘perfect’ dog…when this family went out of their way to bring this dog home.

A great lesson for me.   Things we may never be aware of are influencing people daily, whether we know it or not.   I bet that family who brought that dog home from Dallas have no clue on how they impacted my thoughts and created a ripple in my life.  

This year, I am working hard to be more aware than ever my actions and their potential to influence.  I will be more intentional of the things I say and do, and create more moments to positively impact another's life.

The dog’s name….Francis.  

Many Blessings to Francis' family!