| Sand or Stone
A Bobbi G Classic
July 8, 2010
Listening to the radio the other day, I heard a segment called, “Something to hang your hat on.” These segments are so enjoyable because they are usually full of inspiration and wisdom. This particular anecdote, to which I can not give credit because there was no name, went like this:
A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point on the journey, they had an argument and one friend slapped the other one on the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, he wrote in the sand: “TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME ON THE FACE!”
They kept walking, until they found an oasis where they decided to bathe. The one who had  been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but his friend saved him. After he recovered, he wrote on a stone: “TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE!”
The friend, who had slapped and saved his best friend, asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone. Why?” The friend replied: “When someone hurts us, we should write it in sand where the winds of forgiveness can erase it away, but when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone, where no wind can ever erase it.”
What a great philosophy! (If only figuratively speaking.) Are there things you aren’t proud of in your life? Things you wish you hadn’t said, or done to someone, even as recently as yesterday…this morning? We all have had moments in our past when our words, behavior or actions were less than desirable and extremely hurtful to others. Wouldn’t it be nice if the intended recipient, be it friend or loved one, of those harsh words or hateful actions wrote about it in the sand and let the winds of forgiveness erase it away.
Friends, not everything needs to be spoken. Keeping our mouths shut is always an option. Like our mothers always said, or should have, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” When we’re hurt or angry this can be a hard lesson to remember. But remember we must! Because one of the things you can never recover in life is…the WORD…after it is spoken.
Take time now to reflect on how often in your past you wish someone had written in sand a hurtful thing you said or did. I know I’m not proud of some of the things I have done in my past. In fact, one was embarrassingly recent. However, I told the receiver of my ill placed behavior and asked for forgiveness. My ill placed intentions were directed at someone else and I asked for forgiveness from them also. Hopefully, both of them have written it in sand and let the forgiving winds carry it away.
None of us are perfect, but some of us could try a little harder to be kinder and gentler to everyone they come into contact with. Please remember the story of the ‘sand’ and ‘stone’ the next time you encounter a friend, co-worker, mother, brother, loved one or total stranger, and let your words and actions be worthy enough to write on stone.
And for yourself…consider writing your past failures, hurts, undesirable behaviors or any other adverse event in sand and allow forgiveness to blow them away. Then write your hopes, dreams, good deeds and all the positive aspects of your life on stone so you will always have them with you. Of course, I’m speaking figuratively - we’re not all rushing to the rock quarry to gather stones.
But we could very easily forgive ourselves of any past transgressions and then be an advocate of our own dreams and desires, writing them in stone as we go through life. Think about it.
Can you imagine…having more to write on stone than in the sand? Smiles are always written in stone.
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