The morning was bright and clear as I walked through the forest.  The sun threw a thousand searchlights screaming through the dense canopy with only a few actually reaching the dark moist ground.  I watched the breeze playfully shake the trees causing the light to constantly change as it shown through the dancing leaves.  I felt like I was standing in Mother Natures Kaleidoscope and she was twisting her optical toy round and round producing a brilliant display of complex patterns and constantly changing colors and shapes.

        As a young boy I use to help my grandfather.  I am not sure how much help I was but it was a thrill to me.  I got to ride in his huge truck to Chattanooga where we went to the Goodwill store and unloaded their trucks of donated merchandise onto our truck.  We brought the stuff back to his store an unloaded it.  He sold the used appliances, furniture, clothing and toys in our poor community and made a good living.  I can remember the day I found a Kaleidoscope in the truck of other peoples junk.  Sure it was used and discarded but it was a treasure to me, my brother and sister.  I can still remember holding it up to the light and twisting it round and being amazed at the wonderful world of colors I found.

        Standing in that dark forest I was reminded of that long ago lost toy.  I took this photo underneath one of those leaves and looking back up at the sun.  As the light shown through the leaf it revealed all the tiny veins used to deliver the life giving nutrients of the tree.  As I beheld its amazing complexity I asked the leaf, “Are you complete in yourself?” and the leaf answers, “No, my life is in the branches.”  I asked the branch, and the branch answers, “No, my life is in the trunk.”  I ask the trunk, and it answers, “No, my life is in the root.”  I ask the root, and it answers, “No, my life is in the trunk and the branches and the leaves.  Keep the branches stripped of leaves and I shall die.” So it is with the great tree of life. Nothing is completely and totally self sufficient.

        Today, let us realize how interconnected we are and how much we need each other.  As Martin Luther King said, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” Life at its best is forged in the furnace unity, cooperation and harmony.  Our strength is produced by our unity and willingness to work together.  We are a band of brothers who help ourselves only by helping others.  Happiness is a choice; choose to cooperate.

Something to think about:

• Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

• Light is the task where many share the toil.

• When two know-it-alls get together; why do they always disagree?

• Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.

• Perhaps you’ve heard the story about the two janitors in a large office building who became fine friends. They were broom mates; they even swept together; in fact, they were dust inseparable.

• Friendship is the cement that holds the world together.

• There can be no unity, no delight of love, no harmony, and no good in being, where there is but one. Two at least are needed for oneness.

• Faith makes the discords of the present the harmonies of the future.

Thankful for the sweet strength of unity
Rickey Moore