As I wrote about yesterday here on Mattchat, I spent around an hour yesterday morning deweeding the flower plot around the "Welcome to Decatur" sign.
About half-way thru that hour, I heard the sounds of someone approaching me.
Now remember.... I'm along Route 48, a state highway where you just don't see that many walkers.
I figured it was a runner. Maybe a hitchhiker.
I glanced over my shoulder and immediately recognized who was headed my way.
This gentleman, Rich:
That article is 4 years old, but he's still doing today what he was doing back then. Walking to-and-from work, walking up-and-down Route 48, picking up trash.
I've seen him multiple times along the highway.
So, did you read the article? Specifically this:
He (Rich) finds the debris the rest of us leave in our wake by walking along and swinging a nearly 6-foot-long white cane and reacting to sounds and sense of touch as the cane tip bumps into various types of trash. Blind since birth, sound and feeling are his eager eyes. Walking while swinging and listening, he frequently finds himself amid a target-rich environment in his Decatur neighborhood.
Rich is blind. But doesn't let that stop him.
As he approached, I called out so as not to startle him..... and to make sure he knew my car was parked on the shoulder directly in his path.
That "call out" turned into a real blessing of a conversation with him.
20 minutes with Rich.
20 minutes that fascinated me.
20 minutes that inspired me.
We talked about trash, including some of the weird stuff that he's found while walking the highway. (Just a few minutes earlier, he had found a hubcap and had leaned it against a post.)
We talked about flowers.
We talked about the holiday (he made a very nice comment about how coming across me had led to great start to his day).
We talked about church (he was carrying a salvation tract in his shirt pocket and passed that to me).
We talked about responsibility to our community.
And we talked about his job. He even handed me a business card:
Rich loves to help others.
He loves to help those who are blind find ways to make their life better. Awesome.
As we were parting ways, Rich explained to me the concept of echoes, in terms of how the blind use echoes to "see". I was simply amazed.
He said it's all about listening.
Listening to sounds and how they bounce around.
Echoes.
Although this was the first time Rich and I have spoken, and although Rich's path in life may never again cross mine, our short conversation left an echo for me.
Think about it. An echo is something you hear again, after you've already heard it once.
Rich said some very important things to me.
Things that will echo back my way in the future. Things that I want to echo back my way again.
You see, despite his situation in life, Rich is an encourager. He could whine and complain about his lot in life. Instead, he's out helping, and serving, and lifting others up, rather than doing nothing. Or being a grumbler.
Rich is out spreading cheer and joy.... plus picking up trash.
Picking up the trash that we, so blindly and callously, toss from our vehicle windows.
Thank you Rich for the echoes that resonate from your life.
Out for now.....
Matt