Eavesdropping at the doctor's office...

A note to the men and women, husbands and wives, brother’s, sister’s, cousins and neighbors that invisibly step forward to touch what doesn’t necessarily belong to them but through unconditional measurements of love the gift is given life. Thank you…

Its no where near enough but please understand if more of us say it, the energy from it might turn one moment of impossibility into a reason to try a little harder during that unexected change when you stop to ask, “Why me?”

I’ve always been amazed, inspired and influenced by the person that sets aside their private ambition and self discovery to be placed fifth or sixth on a daily list of demands because helping other living breathing creations from humans to pets to plants holds more importance than hoisting cash into a savings account or winning champion employee trophies at the end of each quarter.

When you sit in a doctor’s office, you learn a lot about the outside territories of the boundaries that block reality from affecting our society. From the extremely young that love in ways that’ll be challenged to the wedding vow guarantee that grips the hand of a grandfather, father, spouse or non-relation during a time of sharp questions, exploration and unmet answers that require a response, no artist or Hollywood movie can come close to telling the true tale of love during it's most innocent state.

Thank you!

Thank you to every volunteer for the Special Olympics, Susan G Koman Race for the Cure, those who volunteer to walk dogs and cats after tragic turns in the events that seemed so peaceful until morning broke. Thank you to every daughter and son that refuses to leave home because the moment they do their eighty year old father or mother might suffer another stroke, fall or seizure.

Thank you to the businesses that invite their employees out on Saturday’s to help clean up waterways and trees that lean too far toward a chapter destined to end the next time there’s wind.

Thank you to the one that nobody recognizes at work that unselfishly helps the homeless at church or takes the time to reach down and pick up a piece of paper the rest of the world has chosen to walk over for the past three hours.

Yesterday I heard grown men with history lessons one hundred billion miles long crack when their bodies didn’t work the way used to and inside the moments that make up a split second the one caring for them chose to invite a positive affirmation that invited a strong sense of courage to a single path that grew forward.

Yet rarely…maybe in a made for TV movie hidden away on Lifetime you might come across a message that simply says, “Thank you…”

Marriage is a thankless job. It’s a career that’s challenged to the brink of bankruptcy. A business agreement that’s disagreed upon more times than night unveils its place of rest. I fall deeper in love when hidden near a tree and a couple in their seventies walks by holding onto their childhood dreams.

The woman cuddled up to a near whisper at the doctor’s office, “Today is the day my best friend. This test is going to prove how big your heart really is.”

Extremely slow to respond, the frail man with his eyes fixed to a floor that’s held the path of thousands before him, “Having this big heart has hurt a lot of people…”

“Your daughter isn’t hurt that you’re here. She wants her Daddy back the way I want my best friend to sing to me again.”

“But she isn’t here with me right now…”

“You selfish old fool,” she replied, “Open that big ole heart and tell me she isn’t in there helping you mend the broken flowers in your garden. For goodness sakes…your baby is always with you.”

“But I shake like an ice cream maker…”

“Shake? No way…that’s the wind carrying your flower pedals to new gardens so that a million more blossoms can inspire anyone that walks by.”

“This is not the way it was supposed to be,” he tried to negotiate.

“And if you knew how it was supposed to be do you honestly think it would change the way your baby and I love you?”

I love watching people in love. The Beatles couldn’t have written such a perfect harmony. Love isn’t just about couples and families tossed together like leaves stuck on trees from a winter that wouldn’t let go. Take the time to look around you and notice the enormous amount of invisible volunteers that never stop being who they truly are; angels dressed up like actors at the Blumenthal Performing Art Center set inside an extremely cold world filled with zillions of dreams about one day being perfect…

Be in love with the idea that you’re in love…make that love about anything you want and exercise your right to let it blossom like leaves on a tree creating allergies of the heart; no itching, sneezing or wheezing…just a need to volunteer your shell to a worthy passerby that requires only one item…to be accepted during a time when self acceptance is the last thing on their mind.

I will always believe in you first…

arroecollins@clearchannel.com