Petrified Wood
I recently got a piece of petrified wood as a prize for solving a puzzle at a family reunion. As I hefted the piece I realized that petrified wood is not wood at all – it is stone. It still has the appearance of wood, because that’s what it started as. A gradual process of minerals penetrating and replacing the fibers of the wood has turned it to stone. In a similar way, we don’t change suddenly or overnight – it is a gradual process of principles penetrating and replacing the old thoughts and habits with something more solid and enduring. You are a work in progress!
We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.
– Max De Pree
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The Family Toolbox
Dr. Paul,
Thanks for sharing our conversation with my family. I hope it will help other parents when they get to that point they feel there is nothing they can do for their child. There’s always hope. One of my favorite quotes from an old movie is “people can change.” The changes my son Josh has made are truly incredible.
-Michael
I recently compaired my expirence with alochol and drug abuse as a brick wall. Every time I took a drink or used a drug it was like putting another brick on the wall. Same idea as Pink Floyd had in the famous song… anyway, as I relized that wall I had build, which took twenty five years to construck, was not going to come down in one day, one month or one year for that matter. Some of those bricks were in there pretty solid too, for I was pretty good at laying brick and the morter was or the highest quaility meaning I had paid attention to the workmanship of my abuse, I did it right. Demolition can be very messy as well. Lot’s of debire and rubble to be carted away. And when that’s done, I will have to work on the landscaping to get the “plot” into shape so someone might want to put down roots there. Meaning, fix myself, make me inviting to a woman of quality and hopfully have a family.
You may use that…
Sorry about the spelling
I love the thought “a work in progress” and I would like to add that those who are consciously aware of that are really “a masterpiece in the making”. Thanks for the lovely thought it brightened my day.