IT was many years ago that I had first met him. He was the best pianist I had ever heard: Brilliant with his playing and fantastic as a composer. But it was a lot more than that; he talked with wisdom and it was a joy to listen to him when he waxed eloquent on philosophy or even religion, or for that matter on any subject under the sun.
I used to sit and listen and wonder how a man could be so talented, till one day the light man in the auditorium asked us to leave as he had to go home. “Why?” asked my friend quietly. “Because it’s time for me to go home,” said the man. “Do you know who I am?” asked my friend.
“It doesn’t matter sir,” said the light man as he put off the light. The shot we heard could have broken a jaw. I was shocked; my friend, the same brilliant musician friend, the man so cool and calm otherwise had laid the poor light man low. “Why?’ I asked him later as we left the hospital. “I don’t know,” he said slowly, “but when the man was insolent I saw red.” “All he said was that he wanted to go home,” I said.
“It’s my past,” cried the brilliant musician, “there were times at the beginning of my career when I was slighted and treated badly, and my anger just has not gone away.” “But you are big now,” I said simply. “You need to get rid of those feelings. You need to make yourself realize that the past is over.” Many of us want, above all else, to live life fully. But sometimes the past prohibits our living and enjoying life to the utmost in the present.
A teacher noticed the strange sight of a poor worm pulling its dead half across the floor, a little girl ran in and noticed it there. Picking it up, she said, “Oh, Little Worm when are you going to lose that dead part so you can really live?” What a marvelous question for all of us! When are we going to lose that dead part so we can really live? When are we going to let go of past pain so we can live fully?
When are we going to drop the baggage of needless guilt so we can experience life? When are we going to let go of that past resentment so we know peace? Have you also been dragging something that is dead with you? And if you are, are you ready to lose that dead part so you can really live? You could either go to a psychologist to help you along, or take that baggage, that hurt to the Lord in prayer, “Take away this dead part Lord, that I’ve been carrying along!” And feel lighter after that..!
