THE BAGPIPER
Time is like a river. You cannot touch the water twice, because
the flow that has passed will never pass again. Enjoy every moment
of life. As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by
a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless
man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a
pauper's cemetery in the Nova Scotia back country.
As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost and, being a
typical man, I didn't stop for directions.
I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had
evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were
only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt
badly and apologized to the men for being late.
I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid
was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started
to play.
The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I
played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and
friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless
man.
And as I played "Amazing Grace", the workers began to weep. They
wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished, I packed up
my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head was hung low,
my heart was full.
As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "I
never seen nothing like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."
Apparently I'm still lost....it's a man thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment