Stop, and Study These Things
It's just a moment
a moment you will never have again even on the other side to which we travel. It's a minuscule measure you will never regret spending on studying a man's face like this. Not his words.
In the cemented-wrinkles of his face are those experiences good, bad, happy and sad. Experiences you have longed to have and those you should never live. He's not a celebrated man. He is but a member of an endless number of dad's, father's, husband's, brothers, uncles and grandfathers with no certificate of honor to close his life. Just a quiet place of rest near that old Oak where he played when his dad would pay that yearly-visit to grandpa.
If you only stop. Study without harming the moment with unneeded questions and absorb what is in his wrinkles and use what he has to your advantage, your years and life will be the more richer.
It's a matter of listening
when others are rambling on with faded stories about a lie that they have told so true. It's a God-granted minute, sixty little seconds laughed at by the powers we wonder, she cries one silent tear.
One silent tear that says so much about her shattered dreams of a starry-night life with a man who's presence quakes the darkness. One area small to the naked eye and a moment she never saw who caused her man to die.
Listen as hard as you can. Ignore an equal amount of will. In her one tear, your heart will be touched as your life is moved. And your wisdom will be silently-increased.
. . .other things worthy of studying
Consider the old
for in an old man's hat, tie, shoes or suit, lies the numerous unnoticed and yet accomplishments of a life lived by simple wills and efforts. Just sit near these old people who can hear without turning. See without looking. And understand without stammering.
Lose yourself in her eyes
for in her eyes are the answers to the mysteries of the universe. Every mortal question dreamed and why things find wreckage, or so it seems. Still, take a mere moment to see what she sees. And study how to see how she sees. You will be a happier soul unburdened by opaque ambition, but simple joy.
Make this your business
to interrupt a questioned-life. Whether or not she can be his wife? She will be angry at your persistence, but in that moment of anger, truth always seeps into the heart and with only one word, one whisper, surety of step will take the stage. Don't stand idle like a dying Oak. Walk faithfully and with your ordered-words, you take her hand.
