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Impact – An Essay

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Impact

There was a crash. It was an ending. It was a beginning.

A 14 year old girl named Emma Cruse ceased being a young lady and began her life as an angel, a guardian angel to so many.

Love, courage, inspiration. How can one person I’ve never met represent all those qualities? I don’t know. Does it really matter, though?

It was an early Sunday morning on Day 3 of my Vol State trek across Tennessee. The day was bright with plenty of sunshine. Not a cloud in the sky. A car pulled onto the road’s shoulder, facing me. I wasn’t worried. I guess you could say I was wary.

A woman exited the car and was heading towards me.

“I wonder what this is all about” my fatigued and hypervigilant mind queried. It’s not unusual for people to stop and want to chat about what this long meandering line of runners and walkers are doing in their towns. Was this going to be one of those encounters?

When she neared me, she asked if I had a minute. Remembering my manners I replied “Of course.” I was also always grateful for a valid reason to stop walking and rest.

How incomplete and empty my soul would be had I either missed her or brushed her off, in a hurry to cover one more mile. The 3-5 minutes I spent listening to the story Mary Cruse was unraveling through her tears remain the most valuable and precious minutes of my life.

It was obvious that Emma’s grandmother was channeling Emma to all of us along the road that day. I still have her photograph – it’s my talisman. I carry it with me every year. But I don’t need a photograph anymore, for Emma travels with me wherever I go. She and Suzanne (my other guardian angel – a tale for another time) ride along on my shoulders, working magic, infusing me with strength and courage.

“She loved being a Road Angel” her grandmother bragged. “She and her dad used to drive up and won this road, helping runners along the way.”

For some reason, the dam broke then, and the next thing we knew, we ere both crying and hugging. Hugging really does meld two hearts into one. Not only did the dam burst but the door also opened. The door to my heart. And in march Emma, taking up residence…forever.

This 14 old girl, the one I’d never met, began to fortify me. Since she inhabits my heart and not my mind, I don’t have to “think” about Emma. She’s just always there, always surrounding me with love, always whispering “you can do this, Terrie. I’m here and together we can overcome anything.”

And for some reason, I believe her. I feel her. I move with her. I feel stronger because of her.

You want to know something even more special? She’s had this same impact on so many other Vol Staters all around the world. Everyone who’s heard of Emma has a part of her within. It’s as if we’re lost puppies and the pound and God has “chipped” us with a cherished Emma chip.

This 14 year old girl may have left one body but I assure you she’s now in hundreds more, encircling the earth.

That, my friends, is impact.

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Daily Gratitude

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Daily Gratitude: “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.”

I imagine you might be doubting this quote’s Legitimacy. If so, read it again. Then think about it.

You could have an impactful experience such as jumping out of the way of a car missing being hit by inches. But do you learn from that? Not necessarily. If you don’t think about it and how it happened, you could just as easily make the same mistake again.

But if you think about it you might see that you were trying to cross in the middle of the street and maybe around a bend where lines of sight weren’t that good.

Maybe you were sleep deprived and not able to make decisions as quickly as usual. Maybe you just shouldn’t have tried to cross on that street at all.

Who knows. There could be a ton of things that go into it. But until you reflect on the entire thing you won’t know.

What experiences have you had that ended up repeating because you didn’t reflect and learn from what happened?

Always take time to look at what you’ve experienced and see what you need to change, if anything. It’s called growth.

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Daily Gratitude

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Daily Gratitude: “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”

This is important but difficult. It’s so hard when everything seems so dark and dreary.

One of the best ways to accomplish this is to be prepared. How can you prepare for the down times?

By remembering “this, too, shall pass” and then proving it to yourself? How?

By reviewing your life. In as much detail as you can. Go back and find those times when you thought your world was going to end or never be the same. Then go to a point a year or so after and see how your life was then. If it was still yucky, keep going. Find a place when it wasn’t so bad. You did survive. What changed in your life? How did you feel about what had happened?

Then do it again with another event. Just keep doing it. Write these things down and keep them in a place you’ll remember.

So when things go “bad” in the future, go to your notebook and read through it. You can see that there is a light way down that tunnel. You just have to squint sometimes to see that light. But the list of things you’ve been through should help you know that even now “this, too, shall pass!”