Tracks

No matter what we say, no matter how we portray ourselves to others, time always tells the true tale of a man’s or woman’s life. When we, or others, look back over the life we have lead, the footprints we have left behind will reveal much about our lives. I’ve heard it said that hindsight is always 20/20 and there is great wisdom in that statement. We may fool others, we may even fool ourselves, but those who look upon our tracks afterward will see clearly where our paths have actually lead. And, without a doubt, God always knows where we’ve been and what we have done as well. Armed with that knowledge, perhaps we would be wise to reconsider the course of our lives on a regular basis and endeavor to select trails that will produce the legacy we would choose to leave in our wakes. All of us have made our share of poor choices in the past, but every day offers us fresh opportunities to chart a new course ... and the chance to leave a new and better trail behind us.

Tracks
I was walking in the desert
with no living thing in sight
Yet, across the sand were countless tracks
left by creatures in the night
I was struck by the diversity
of the tiny prints I found
From every creature who had recently
crossed that patch of lonely ground
And even with my knowledge
which was limited at best
I could tell much about the animals
with but an educated guess
I could make out snakes and lizards
rabbits, bugs and mice and birds
Guess their speed and their direction
without a book or spoken word
All these things were clearly evident
not hard to see or understand
Like tiny signatures each creature
left upon the empty desert sand
And it comes to mind that each
of us has left a trail too
Surely in the snow or desert
sand or early morning dew
But, more importantly, our tracks
are left upon the life we’ve led
By the things we have accomplished
we have created or we’ve said
Some will leave their tracks in ink
or paint, or notes upon a page
Some will leave impressions made
by acts of kindness or of rage
Some will build and some will plant
throughout their journey here
Leaving tracks on countless strangers
and the people they hold dear
However lightly we may step
upon the sands we cross each day
Our tracks will surely tell the tale
long after we have passed that way
What story will my own tracks tell
when others come upon
My foot prints in the sand of life
once I have traveled on?
Will the direction which they indicate
the pace, the gait, the girth
Point to a life of purpose
one of merit and of worth?
Will they indicate that I’d not
passed this way, somehow, in vain?
That I had left a wake of kindness
rather than a trail of pain
The tracks I want the world to find
are ones that served my fellow man
Tracks that honor what I cherished most
and obeyed my Master’s plan
So I shall choose my steps more carefully
for now I better understand
The kind of tracks I want to leave ...
where once I scurried across the sand
By Frank Carpenter ©