The [ADVENTure] That Is Surprise

 

[Adventure 338]

When I walked into the health center building to get the first part of my cerebrospinal fluid leak test done, I did not expect to receive the gift of a rock and a bible verse, but I did. Surprise! 

I got onto the elevator and held the doors for a woman rushing in my direction. I soon learned that she was running late for her appointment in the same office I was going to. Since I was early, I encouraged her to go first. 

As we stood in line waiting to check in, we chatted. At one point she rustled around in her bag and pulled something out of it. To my surprise, she extended a handful of rocks with crosses painted on them to me. She told me to select the one that spoke to me, so I did. As I turned it over my hand, I noticed a bible verse on the other side: Proverbs 4:23

Above all, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Soon thereafter, she was called to the desk. I put the rock in my purse, then got on with my two days of testing. 

The next day, sitting in the waiting room in nuclear radiology, I came across the rock when looking for something in my purse. As I sat with it in my hand, I started thinking about the verse and how it relates to how I've been feeling lately. 

I'm a person who tends to give what I can whenever I can without much thought as to the impact of the giving on me personally. I put my heart into all I do. And lately I've been feeling like in some ways my heart is getting trampled on rather than filled by the giving and the doing and the being. It's not that I need to stop the giving and the doing and the being ... it's that I need to make sure that what I'm doing is sustainable - that it's filling my heart as much as it's filling others' hearts and not leaving me frustrated or drained.

What surprised me more than being offered a rock by a stranger in a medical office was the realization of relationships with people and organizations that need to change or cease...and how good it made my heart feel with that realization.