arrows
My go-to verse over the past 20 years is from Psalm 25: “Show me the way, O LORD, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truths and teach me, for you are my Savior and my trust is in you,”
The Ignatius Camino is marked from Loyola to Manresa by orange arrows. Small orange arrows on rocks, fences, and posts across 650km so us pilgrims can find our way. We are taught early that if you get to an intersection or fork that isn’t marked, that means you are lost. Go back because you missed an arrow somewhere.
Our morning reflection today was gratitude: ponder the people and events in your life for which you are grateful. On my first step, a slideshow of faces streamed through my head…parents and family and teachers to friends and coworkers plus a few people I’ve never met. Over the next two hours, I pondered the people who loved me, those who provided for me, and those who simply showed me the way.
Fritz owned Conrad’s Deli on Madison Avenue in NYC. I worked there for three years in the late 1970s, serving coffee and bagels in the morning, slicing roast beef and pastrami all afternoon. What Fritz doesn’t know is the most every principle I applied to my professional life over the next fifty years, I learned from him. Eliminate queues. Streamline production. Consolidate service. Expedite delivery. Whether I was managing a department at Citibank or running my own ad agency, it was Fritz who showed me the way all those years ago.
So many others invested in my professional life, including my long-time mentor Ed Forti. What I didn’t learn from Fritz, I learned from Ed.
The list is even longer when I consider my spiritual journey. Lou Garaventa, Rich Joy, Tom Kay and so many others.
But here’s the deal: if my walk with Christ, like a Camino, is a journey, then TK has been my orange arrow these past 20 years. He helps me stay on track.
Yes, I stray. I wander off course. But I’ve gotten better at knowing when I’m off course. I’ll reach that intersection and realize I must have missed a sign somewhere.
When that happens, I just need to text TK “come find me”. He always does. And for that I am grateful.
Great stuff Ed. And a nice analogy to the arrows. While it seems we never know why or how people affect us, I wonder again if this is the hand of God placing people in our path without our knowledge and are we always listening when He does. I’m thankful to have you as a lifetime friend and you joining John Peelan and me in conversation on Day 1 of 1D-2. And I’m overjoyed at all the good and great things that have happened to you, including these folks you have met who I’ve known thru you. You are the main reason I said yes to this trip (sorry Paul 😬) but overjoyed I did so to experience this with you and the guys.
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