So Gene Austin and I took it on as our pet project, along with some help from other volunteers. We’ve spent countless hours cutting down guava, clearing undergrowth, pulling weeds, and Gene has even dug out parts of the path to make it safer. It’s been hard work but very rewarding to see the path reappear.
As we were traipsing along the path one evening last week, Gene made a comment about how many times we’d traveled along it. We still hadn’t made it to the end. It occurred to me that the two of us might just have walked Warpath more times in the short time that we had been working on it than any two people since it was originally created and utilized back in 1835. It was quite an awesome thought. It was as if the ghosts of the past were with us on that trail.
1835: so many years ago to us. But as we all know time passes. And I truly believe the old adage that the older you get, the quicker it passes! Ascension Island has such a short history really, in relation to so many parts of the world. Those of us from the “New” world have museums filled with artifacts from up to four hundred years ago. Standing in a museum in China many years ago, I was awed by the fact that their history can be traced back several thousand years without difficulty.
The Bible teaches us the history of Christians, back several thousands of years. All sorts of other text books teach us about the history of the world. So many years of our ancestors shaping history and making the world what it is today, good and bad. Luckily, despite some horrific times in history, wars, plagues, droughts and other terrible times, the good has outweighed the bad. Overall, good people with the best of intentions, living the faith they were taught and held in their hearts, created a better world to pass on to their descendants.
It might have been something big, like a wonderful new invention or setting into place a democratic government that treated all people equal. It might have been an advance in medicine that saved lives, or fighting to end slavery. Or it might have been something as simple as bringing up their children to be kind and helpful, lessons that would be passed on and help keep the balance of good in this world.
The ghosts of our ancestors are all around us. When I discovered that my grandfather’s family came from a little town in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania, I felt a pull to go visit the area. I drove around the beautiful countryside, and with my daughter, found the little cemetery where so many of my ancestors are buried. I could feel the ghosts of my past with me as I read the names on the weathered gravestones. It was an awesome experience. My search into my genealogy has taught me just how many people in this wide world that we are connected to. None of us walks alone.
Someday we will become the ghosts of the past to the generations that follow us. What legacy will we leave? Will there be memories of the good things we accomplished, the kindness that we showed to others? Will there be proof in the good hearts of our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren that we lived, and were a good and loving person? If we follow our faith, and live a good life, and pass on God’s love to others, then we certainly will live on. Our names might be lost to the mists of time, but our souls will live on in the hearts of those who come after us.
May God bless all those who shaped our lives, and have become the ghosts that walk beside us and guide us every day.
