Diamonds in my backyard.
It’s a snowy day, near blizzard conditions, and as I look out the window to my backyard, it’s hard to imagine any diamonds out there. There probably aren’t, but figuratively speaking, I think there have been plenty here in our little town.
We are a community of only about 350 people, but we are fortunate to have a weekly newspaper. I believe a newspaper keeps a town alive. And on this snowy morning, I paused to read a couple stories that I had missed.
One was a regular column called On the Downhill Slide. Its author, a 90-year-old spunky woman. Even on a day like today I wouldn’t be surprised to see her trudging to our local senior center pushing her rolling walker. She’s remarkable, and so was her column this week. An avid reader, she started her column by quoting Barton Goldsmith: “When you can accept that you and your life are a work-in-progress, you will be easier on yourself and everyone around you.”
She went on to talk about her own progress, which she questioned as age crept in and her “rough edges” were worn down. But improvements, she noted, can come in several ways: “…becoming more thoughtful of others, less concerned about the virtues of those elected to office, and more tolerant of my own failings”
What good advice from this local citizen.
And then there was a story reprinted from a blog spot by a Catholic school in a neighboring town which featured an interview with the school’s newly hired band director. It appeared in our newspaper because the director had taught music in our community a number of years ago. The “Moments of Grace” article chronicled this woman’s life, starting with losing parents at a young age in two different tragedies. Siblings were torn apart as grandparents and step parents regrouped. A now broken marriage produced two sons. She’s dealt with cancer and a rare cancer-related syndrome. Through it all, Monika has persevered, and in a twist of fate, music became an integral part of her life. “Music saved me,” she said. She has taught music in several schools and received numerous awards for her accomplishments in music education.
I never knew this about her when she lived in our community. I wish I had. Not that it would have changed anything about our relationship. It’s just that we often take people and their lives for granted without ever really learning about them and gaining wisdom from their experiences. These are the diamonds among us.
Newspapers, small towns, neighbors and acquaintances. There are diamonds everywhere we look, even in a local newspaper.