What You Do Lasts Forever
By Bruce Lindsay
It was a beautiful sunny calm day and I had a day off. I finished all my housework by about 11 am so I went outside in the backyard with my banjo and practiced. I played for an hour or so and then noticed a good number of people were coming into my neighbour’s back yard for a lunch. They didn’t ask me to be quiet and there were so many people talking, I expected my music would fade into the background. So I kept playing. I played for another couple of hours until my fingers were sore. By then the lunch party was over too.
A month or so later, my neighbour Stephanie came over. She said, “Thank you very much for playing for us during our reception. My father would have really loved it. You played all his favourite hymns. You must have seen the death notice in the paper and planned to play for us when we needed it most.”
I said, “I didn’t know it was your father’s funeral. I didn’t know you were having people over at all. I just went outside to play because it was such a nice day.”
She said, “We thought you were playing just for us. We’ve never heard you play better. It really meant so much, you’ll never know.”
You never know what impact you are going to have by doing your best at what you do.
About 3 months later she and her husband came over with a new baby. They had adopted a baby and were excited to show us. The baby was bundled up in a blanket so all I could see was a bald little head. She said, “Guess what we named the baby?”
I said, “Bruce?”
She said, “No… it’s a girl. Can’t you tell by the pink blanket?
“We named her Emma. After your daughter.”
What a great gift! What an honour!
There is a story I’ve heard about a man who was suicidal and was walking out of the city to some woods so he could hang himself in a place no one would find him. As he walked, he heard a piper on a hill playing “Amazing Grace”. From way back in the corners of his mind that he didn’t visit often, the words sprang up into his memory. “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” He turned around and walked back into town. He joined Alcoholics Anonymous and turned his life around.
The man asked around, and found where the piper lived. He knocked on the door and the piper asked him in. He told him his story and thanked him. The piper was surprised. He had wanted to practice the pipes, but his wife didn’t like the noise, and so told him to drive off and play out of town somewhere that wouldn’t bother anybody. He played and practiced many songs and had since then, become quite good at the bagpipes. But that day he was playing Amazing Grace.
You never know what impact you are going to have by doing your best at what you do.
It was a beautiful sunny calm day and I had a day off. I finished all my housework by about 11 am so I went outside in the backyard with my banjo and practiced. I played for an hour or so and then noticed a good number of people were coming into my neighbour’s back yard for a lunch. They didn’t ask me to be quiet and there were so many people talking, I expected my music would fade into the background. So I kept playing. I played for another couple of hours until my fingers were sore. By then the lunch party was over too.
A month or so later, my neighbour Stephanie came over. She said, “Thank you very much for playing for us during our reception. My father would have really loved it. You played all his favourite hymns. You must have seen the death notice in the paper and planned to play for us when we needed it most.”
I said, “I didn’t know it was your father’s funeral. I didn’t know you were having people over at all. I just went outside to play because it was such a nice day.”
She said, “We thought you were playing just for us. We’ve never heard you play better. It really meant so much, you’ll never know.”
You never know what impact you are going to have by doing your best at what you do.
About 3 months later she and her husband came over with a new baby. They had adopted a baby and were excited to show us. The baby was bundled up in a blanket so all I could see was a bald little head. She said, “Guess what we named the baby?”
I said, “Bruce?”
She said, “No… it’s a girl. Can’t you tell by the pink blanket?
“We named her Emma. After your daughter.”
What a great gift! What an honour!
There is a story I’ve heard about a man who was suicidal and was walking out of the city to some woods so he could hang himself in a place no one would find him. As he walked, he heard a piper on a hill playing “Amazing Grace”. From way back in the corners of his mind that he didn’t visit often, the words sprang up into his memory. “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” He turned around and walked back into town. He joined Alcoholics Anonymous and turned his life around.
The man asked around, and found where the piper lived. He knocked on the door and the piper asked him in. He told him his story and thanked him. The piper was surprised. He had wanted to practice the pipes, but his wife didn’t like the noise, and so told him to drive off and play out of town somewhere that wouldn’t bother anybody. He played and practiced many songs and had since then, become quite good at the bagpipes. But that day he was playing Amazing Grace.
You never know what impact you are going to have by doing your best at what you do.
posted by Murray Lincoln at
Monday, October 15, 2007
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