Are You A Stumbling Block or a Stepping Stone?

A Stumbling Block or a Stepping Stone?

Isn't it strange that princes and kings,

and clowns that caper in sawdust rings,

and common folk like you and me,

are builders for eternity?
To each is given a book of rules,

a block of stone and a bag of tools.

For each must shape ere time has flown

a stumbling block or a stepping stone.

My stepmother, being a stumbling block of huge proportions, shared the above poem with me after my mother died and I often reflect on it.

I think about what I have done with my block of stone. Have I made it into a stepping stone or a stumbling block?

When I think of my children, I like to think that I took my block of stone, carved the best rules of life that I could think of or have experienced to pass on to them and took the time to read the stone with them in hopes it could be used as a stepping stone along their paths of life, using it as a reference when I was no longer around.

I personally have run across few stumbling blocks in my life that I couldn't find a way to step around. I was the "life hands you lemons, make lemonade" person. But from each stumbling block, there was a lesson to be learned and I took the lesson with me and used it through my life whenever there was a need.

I really don't think you ever get done carving your stone for as long as there is life, there is opportunity and experience that happens that will need to be added to your stone.

I'm getting ready to find a corner of my stone to carve on once again as it seems that the cancer monster must be revisited. My GP determined that there is something there he felt upon palpation to the prior surgical site(after he felt certain my thyroid was just hard and after I told him certainly that my thyroid had left the body 3 years prior) so I am calling the oncologist after I type this and set the ball in motion. Whatever it is needs to be dealt with quickly as my favorite season is coming up as well as my favorite holidays and I have things to do.