The Color of Bricks

“A great building will never stand

if you neglect the small bricks.” 

(Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha)

I spoke with an acquaintance recently who worked as a brick layer for forty years. His hands will forever bear the marks of his trade - rough, iron strong, built for work. His body also has been touched by the labors of trowel, level, and mortar. His joints ache; daily reminders of the passion that filled his working days.

Brick layers are our mentors, for they understand the necessity of patience and precision. Buildings constructed of cement blocks or bricks grow from the ground up, one brick at a time. There is simply no way to hurry the process. Mortar is mixed, levels are checked... and a brick is laid. Then another, and another, and another...

Architecture starts

when you carefully put two bricks together.

There it begins.

(Ludwig Mies van der Rohe)

At the end of the day, on a large project, it may look like very little was accomplished. A few rows, carefully, stacked, topping and tailing neatly finished, and a passerby has no idea what the final outcome will look like. So it goes as Love sculpts our lives; it is slow and careful in its work.

In my service as Grief & Bereavement Coordinator I observe that moving into and through our grief is very much like brick laying. Viewed from a daily, weekly, or even monthly perspective it may seem that very little progress is being made. However, healing from grief is tedious work, for in grief our heart and soul must be tended to very carefully, one gentle brick at a time.

Likewise with parenting. Day after day, struggle after struggle, it may seem that we are constructing nothing more than chaos. But each moment of patience, each gentle response to a child flipping their lid is a brick laid in the construction of a child's life. 

So too with each person we encounter - interacting with patience, openness, and compassion adds one more brick to that person's edifice. They become a little more "finished" as it were, more complete. We walk away, unaware that we have been brick and mortar in the architecture of their being.

“No one has ever become poor by giving.” 

(Anne Frank, Diary of Anne Frank: the play)

In this life we have been granted an infinite number of bricks with which to build, and an unending supply of mortar. The bricks and mortar of our work are the quintessential qualities that grow us as a species - Love, generosity, forbearance, patience, forgiveness... With these materials we build each other up, strengthening foundations brick by slow brick. 

As you go into your day know that you are changing the lives of the people you meet. How you change them depends upon the bricks that you lay. Using the bricks mentioned above beings healing to humanity - healing that is so much in demand in these uncertain days.

I leave the last word to Archbishop Desmond Tutu:

“Do your little bit of good where you are;

it's those little bits of good put together

that overwhelm the world.” 

The color of bricks...

the art of becoming. 

An arch

is

incomplete

until the

keystone

has been set

Every stone

has its

place

Pray

breathe

Be

To Ponder Further:

- From the Bible: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23)

- From Confucianism: "Gentleness and goodness are the roots of humanity." (Confucianism. Book of Ritual 38.18)

- From First Nations Wisdom: "My children, listen well. Remember that you are brothers, that the downfall of one means the downfall of all. You must have one fire, one pipe, one war club." (Native American Religions. Hiawatha [Iroquois])