Missed opportunity

Don’t you hate it when you miss a gathering of good friends because you over looked the plain blue envelope in the mail?

Don’t you hate it when you missed the opportunity to hear an international singer perform in an intimate setting to sing for just you and a handful of friends because you were too busy…

And don’t you just hate it when your schedule is so busy that you cannot get together with that wonderful, dear friend across town because your day is full of “this and that”? 

Wouldn’t you hate to miss the opportunity of pull a drowning swimmer from the lake just before they went under?

What about that sweet but sometimes odd girl that sits in the back of your class room?  She’s be drowning for years in a sea of misunderstood episodes.  Because she could tread water for a while, many good swimmers, including the life guards missed the opportunity to pull her from the water even when someone called out “I think that girl is in trouble?”

But because she smiled and said she was okay, you kept on about your day.  The other swimmers were doing laps, some more than others, many were just horsing around in the water.  But this swimmer was drowning.  Even her mom and dad who called from the shore and shouted “Won’t someone help her?” Anyone?  We don’t know why she can’t put her hands and feet together and stroke to shore.  She’s been to swim lessons.  She’s been taught.” 

Finally one day, her mother found a small, very experienced life guard and said “Would you watch my daughter swim?  She’s been told by many that she should do what the others do but she always ends up swimming differently and never seems to make it to shore.”  With one look at the girl, the small but very experienced life guard swam out to where she was.  They treaded water for a while together and soon the life guard swam back to the shore, leaving the girl to tread on her own.  Secretly, she had left her a small life raft.