The Fallen Tree

In 1975 I was stationed at Ramstein AFB in Germany. I occupied a space in the NCO barracks with a friend named Rusty. We had many adventures, but the one I will share was a telling one of how darkness can obscure the obvious.

Rusty, Matthews and I always took a path from our barracks to a Chinese restaurant and the theatre on the other side of the base. We traveled this path at blazing speed at many different times of the day. This time was to be different. As we headed for a night out, we ran helter skelter down the path in the dark of night. This was a path surrounded by tall pines, with very little light from street lights or the moon. I was in the lead, Rusty just behind and Matthews pretty close to him. As I hit the middle of the path, I was knocked for a loop by a tree that had fallen across the path sometime that day. I did my best to yell to the other guys and warn them, but the next thing I knew they had both hit the tree and landed right on top of me...how many times we had run that path and never an obstacle in our way...just a simple act had made the difference...well we picked our selves up, banged up a little, dusted our selves off and went on our way. Did we give it another thought to warn others of impending injury...not then? How many times do we go through life, just walking the same old path, not paying attention to what can loom in the darkness. When those pitfalls are placed before us, to we blindly fall over, injure ourselves...spiritually and physically...do we strive to pay attention to the promptings of not just relying on what is always in our path, but to be aware of what can fall in our paths. Beware of your fallen trees....you will never know when they might trip you up.