All you need is... ?

Working out at the pipe yard has been a different experience from the church which I served for so long.  The work looks different and may appear to be dirtier, but I have come to learn some very important lessons from the few months that I have been out here.  First of all, we can't do this alone.  At our company, there are people with all sorts of backgrounds, one in particular stands out in my mind.  He is one that has had a very troubled past, has had legal problems and has had confrontations with all sorts of workers here.  For a while, I considered him a pain to have to deal with and even suggested having him removed from the roster, luckily, I wasn't listened to and he is still here.  Instead, he was placed with a different worker and lo and behold, he is working differently, better.  To my surprise, he has taken well to working in this new team, and has adapted well to a structured and organized team in which he feels comfortable to work.  This has struck me, because no matter where we have been, or who we have been, we all need each other.  Sure, there are some of us who believe ourselves to be anti-social or strongly introverted, but even we need to interact with others, even if its just to remind us that we have B.O.  In either case, we are not meant to be solitary, nor are we intended to go through life alone and cold, this only leads to death, rather, as social beings, we are meant to go and take the hand of another, or at least a moment of their time, and to celebrate life with friends and family.  A second lesson that I have learned, is that you don't always have to be living the dream to be happy, sure it helps, but as I have come to see in the workers' faces, there is a sense of joy in being happy in the moment.  Here at the pipe yard, pay isn't necessarily good, nor is it clean or easy work, but somehow, the folks come and do what they can, the best that they can and live their lives with seeming joy.  At first, I thought this strange and somewhat scary, "How can they be contnent?"  I asked myself, but they are, and as I come and work and then go home, I can say that there is a sense of contentment in me also, not because I am doing so well financially or because I get to wear clean clothes, but because in these last few months, I have laughed more than in the past 5 years, and I have come to appreaciate the honesty of friendships that are born, not of my collar, or my title, but of authentic exchanges between, two, three or more human beings.  OVerall, there are many lessons that can be learned day after day, and for this fool, who believed himself so wise to many things, life has proven that there is more to be learned, more to be seen, more to be lived.  And so, I continue to respond to the call, to life, and along this journey, I am happy to enjoy the good moments and those that are more challenging, because in the end, I have love, I am loved, and I love.  As such, know that you are loved.  R.L.