learning lessons
Distance is a teacher, a slow, steady, patient teacher. Her lessons are only learned through the doing, through the journey. Ask anyone who has crossed the finish line of a marathon, that brief glorious moment but a glimpse of the weeks, months, years of training that have gone to accomplish that one moment. Ask anyone who has prayed for years, decades for something that they know they may never see happen. Ask Paul who spent years in chains and prison for a single trial before Cesar. Yes, distance is a teacher if we will but heed her lessons. If we will learn to savor the downtrodden moments, knowing that in those moments we are learning the most valuable lessons of endurance, steadfastness, and courage. If we will learn to savor each step of the journey, not eagerly pushing past the things we don't enjoy to get to the future. If we will learn to savor the blessed good times, not taking for granted those around us, the moments and joys we share with them; learning to savor t