(For some reason, paragraphs refuse to appear in traditional form in this post. In spite of recreating this post three times, I just can't get the paragraphs to hold their shape. Sorry for the long black mass.) Imagine you live in a land swarming with sky-wheeling dragons. They are purple, black and blue-- and so are you. Though the land is full of many varieties of dragon (some are practically harmless while others are positively lethal) the dragon that harries you and yours is a Roof Dragon, a persistent, relentless beast from which there is no escape. It is as if its DNA is encoded with your own and no amount of fleeing, disguising, reinventing or starting over will flummox it for long. Over the years, you and your family have had your house burned down around you, your clothes charred to pieces, your skin blistered with flaming breath, while those around you look on in seeming unconcern. You realize they have their own dragons, though sometimes it seems that theirs aren’t quite so relentless, not quite so constant, not quite so cruel and that they might have, once in a while, a tiny corner of their personal respite to share. Most don’t. You understand they are afraid of the dragon, afraid of being burned--afraid to acquire their own inexorable Roof Dragon--and so they stay away. Some days, some weeks, some months, some years, are better or worse than others. When times are worse, your path becomes ever more lonely. Things become hotter, thicker with smoke, your injuries more severe with less succor available to soothe them. One day, you and your dearest ones are at such a low, you can’t even obtain water to quench your undying thirst. You lie in a clotted mass on the ground just yards from the well, your hand outstretched, while person after person bustles past, averting their eyes as they go or failing to see what is right before them. Suddenly, and with a surprising lack of horn-bearing angels to herald what’s to come, a person steps from the crowd, gently takes the cup from your outstretched hand, fills it to the brim in the nearby well, and tenderly places it to your lips. With that drink of water, so simple to obtain, yet so inaccessible to yourself, you are granted strength to get to the well and fully quench your thirst, strength to attend to your family for another day. For one more day you are given strength. For one more day you are given hope. For that one cup of water, you will live. In my life there have been a number of cup bearers, those who have braved the heat to personally minister to me in one way or another—or in many. Several of them have been on the Miss Delacourt Has Her Day book tour, one of whom is Kazzy of Kazzy’s Ponderings. Kazzy has the soul of a poet and a heart made of sterner stuff. Her blog posts are polished gems of true speaking, clear thinking and reveal, bit by bit, the purity of her heart. Once upon a time, she said something to me that made me realize I didn’t have to always be the goofy, happy bloggist I had made a habit of being and that it was okay to expose the other sides of my personality. Since then, she has served me in ways big and small. She, along with some others (you know who you are) has been a rock in the sinking sands that have been my life the past few years. If asked, I am sure she would say that what she has done or said or sacrificed was small and meaningless and so easy to accomplish. That may all be true but, for me, they were as filling, essential, and imperative as a drink of water for the beleageured dragon victim by the well. Because of people like Kazzy who lifted her eyes to see, who read what I wrote with perception and who listened to the silent whispers, I am better. I can do more. I can be more. I am grateful, not only to be feeling better than I have been but also to have felt worse than I feel now. Being in a position to be served helps me to feel privileged when it is my turn to brave the fiery dragon of another with a cup of life-giving water in my hands. Go here to read Kazzy’s blog. Go HERE to read what she has to say about MD2. See the sidebar for more posts about the Dragon that lives at my house as well as to find out how to enter the fun giveaways going on this month--time is running out!
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