The paddle

I sit looking up at the paddle. It started out by me asking if she would paint our cabin on an old canoe paddle. She said no, she gave up painting. We chit chatted a bit and then went on our way. It wasn’t more than a month or two when she called me and told me to drop off the paddle with her brother and a picture and they would bring her the paddle and she would paint the picture. I gave it to Jim for his birthday. He probably didn’t care but I did. It was a canoe paddle from my childhood. It had meaning.

Why did Mary change her mind? I have no clue. She has passed on so I will never know. I am very thankful she did.

We all have a “change of mind ” moment. No is such an easy word. It has become my word of choice this year. Once you do or say you will do, people expect. When you say no and then do, it’s a wonderful surprise. There is a Bible parable about the one who said yes and never did and the one who said no and changes their mind and did. I have been both.

As I sit and look at the paddle hanging in the kitchen of the cabin I see lots of things that have changed. We built on to the cabin, we painted the cabin, the ugly shutters are gone (they gave ugly a new meaning” and the trees in front have been cut down. What hasn’t changed is the love for the place, the love for what it represents and the love for the women who painted the canoe paddle; the one who changed her mind. May I strive to be the mind changer in people’s lives and not the disappointed who says yes and then does nothing.