I am no one, yet I am everyone

Randy and his son Marcus

As I continue to be inspired by my friends and well wishers in writing this Blog every week I thought it necessary to continue to share with you, my readers, the words of wisdom that can often be found within us. So this week I am delighted to share with you some inspirational thoughts from my dear and long time friend Randy Gilmore. Randy has been my vocal producer for a several years but is also a renowned tenor sax player. He’s also known for his work as an arranger but is more widely known as the father of the master drummer Marcus Gilmore. So I hope you enjoy Randy’s sharing with us this week. Thank you Randy, FANGA!

Sometime, last year, I was driving with a friend of mine. We were traveling along a large boulevard, when we stopped for a red light. Next to us, on my left, a woman drove up and stopped in the middle of the cross walk. Somewhat annoyed I commented saying something like, ” … Look at this woman stopping all in the middle of the cross walk!” The light turned green and we drove off. As we were approaching the next intersection the light turned red and I was too close to stop in time. I wound up coming to a stop in the middle of the cross walk. My friend looked at me from the corner of her eyes with a smirk and said, “Mmmm Hmm?” Embarrassed I looked at her and quietly said, “Yeah I know!”

1095 or 3359???

Another time there was an incident between me and the social worker, who works at the living facility where my mother lives. I told him my brother was picking her up on Thursday, but when the time came he did not have her medication and papers ready for her to leave. I complained to the director but when he confronted the social worker he said I told him Friday. I was livid and said he was, “lying!!” That same day while on my way to work my boss called and said take bus number 1095. As I was getting ready to pull out he called. I told him I have bus number 1095 and he said I told you bus number 3359. Spontaneously I replied, “No you didn’t,” when that soft and gentle all-knowing voice within said, “See??” I became quiet and thought about the social worker.

Looking back over my life I’m sure that these types of occurrences happened many times. However, it is only lately I’ve become painfully aware of how often I do things that I would criticize someone else for doing. Little by little I am learning not to judge, or at least not so harshly. There can be a myriad of reasons that a person does what he does and my knee jerk reaction judgements rarely take that into consideration. Beyond that, I’m realizing that as I give others a break I am also giving myself a break. How I judge others is how I am judged, and somewhere along the line, in some degree, whether in word, thought or deed, there go I.

Though it has been painful to realize, I must admit this pain is bringing humility in my life. That is what causes me to say today, “I am no one, yet I am everyone.”

Be sure to click on the underlined names highlighted in blue to listen to some of Randy’s and Marcus’ genius work!