Bridge or Barrier Builder?

This past week as I was driving in my car I listened to one of my favorite cds by Phillips, Craig and Dean.  It’s the live version and I got it from a friend a few years ago for a birthday gift. 

One of my favorite songs on the cd  is Build a Bridge of Love.  On the live version of the cd one of the artists tells the story of his grandfather being a bridge builder.  He said that his grandfather told him that the same materials to build bridges can be used to build barriers, it’s a choice of how you use the materials.

Yesterday morning on one of our coldest days of the year I was in town and took this picture of an old train bridge in Little Falls, Minnesota.  It has always been a favorite bridge of mine because of the architectural detail and its age.

Build a Bridge of Love by Phillips, Craig & Dean

Isn’t it crazy, we haven’t spoken in years
We were the closest friends
Where did we part, when did the love disappear
We thought it’d never end
Just a causeless separation
A turn in the road of life
But now we’re nothing more than strangers
Don’t you think that it’s time to

Let’s build a bridge of love together
One stone of hope at a time
Let’s span the sea that comes between us
So join your hand and heart with mine

The timing is right for our differences to cease
O Father make us one
Let’s join in the fight to love all humanity
Our time has just begaun
We can use these precious moments
To tear apart dividing walls
And with those stones of separation
Build a bridge for all
Every race and every nation
United and unique
We’re all just links in a chain of love
I need you, you need me

The past week I’ve had a lot of time to think about relationships.  I’ve been home sick with the flu.  Relationships are hard work.  It is much easier to build a barrier one piece at a time with each hurt or misunderstanding until the barrier is so large you cannot see over it or too long and can not walk around it. 

Each day I have to make an effort to make the choices that will create healthy relationships.  I’m not talking about becoming a doormat but keeping the lines of communication open even when I don’t agree with someone’s choices. My usual way to deal with conflict is to run the other way.  I just don’t like it and I don’t seek it out.   But that in itself can be a barrier between me and another. 

I don’t want to start building a barrier so that if in the future someone feels like talking about something they can still find me accessible instead of locked up in my castle with the drawbridge drawn up and the moat full of crocks.  Not a pretty picture but it can happen one piece at a time until we have secluded ourselves from the very people on this earth who were put here to enrich it.

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Have You Ever Wondered…

This morning as I waited and watched for the birds to come to the bird feeder I wondered.  I wondered why they came at 8:30 this morning and not before and why they came so much earlier yesterday.  How did they know to come and feed?  What is their natural rhythm?

In our business my husband often wonder what makes people come and go at certain times.  Our business is open the same hours of everyday except for Saturdays.  A lot of it is due to personal schedules.  For example families where both husband and wife work are more likely to come after regular business hours or on Saturdays when both are available. 

Retired people can come anytime of the day but usually come first thing in the morning.  Retired people who need their oil changed still want to bring it in on Saturday mornings when they have the rest of the week available.  I suppose out of habit.  Changing oil I think was a Saturday chore around our home growing up but Dad changed it at home.

The behavior that gets me thinking is what changed from yesterday to today to have three different parties interested in a car that has been on the lot since June.  We didn’t change the price recently.  It doesn’t have a big red ribbon on it to draw attention to its existence.  I don’t know of any news stories that would impact its sale but yet today it is in high demand.  Everyone wants it. 

The other behavior that happens at work a lot is the transport arrives to drop off cars.  The transport draws people like flies to honey.  They want what nobody has looked at or claimed.  It doesn’t matter how dirty it is coming off the truck, they want it.  A bit of the Cabbage Patch doll syndrome, that car might be the only one like it available, and they better get theirs before it is too late.

I know that sunshine motivates me, but what motivates other people beyond sunshine and schedules?