Trails

We were hit with a stomach bug this week, each of us in turn over the course of four days. It had been years since any of us had been that sick, and I don't think we've ever been that sick as a family. Even today, the third day, I've tried to stay as still as possible. That kind of stuff can really take it out of you, and sometimes the best medicine is rest.
Where did we get it?
You shake a hand, you give a hug, you pick up a pen to sign a credit slip, and POW, the germs have been transferred. And it's often impossible to trace. There is no clear line back to the first instigator of the germ trail, and I guess really, there couldn't be.
Of course, this is unlike life in other ways, where there is a very real trail of what we do and when we do it. Apply for a credit card? Background check ensues, and you'd better hope that the identity thief who nabbed your credit information a few years back didn't do any lasting damage. Churches are getting into the swing of things with background checks and Safe Church trainings, where anyone who works with children must be screened and go through a educational seminar. Such important work for churches to do, but there again sometimes lies a trail that could be slightly awry. One misplaced digit in your social security number, and POW, you're on some list somewhere. Same name as someone else? Uh oh, you'd better have a good explanation of where you were in 1987...
Even without the information our computers give us, (just a keystroke and there is a list of everyone who has visited your website over the last several months, time, date, length of visit, etc.) we do leave trails behind, don't we? We enter into a store, and our foul mood poisons the environment so that the person checking us out snaps at the next customer. Or hopefully, our smile and genuine "thank you" to the person serving us our lunch makes that person feel valued and perhaps tinges his/her day with a brighter cast.
Same in our families. We give our spouse a casual wave, and she leaves the house feeling sort of invisible. Or we look directly into his eyes, say "I am so glad I married you" and suddenly what could have been an ordinary day turns into an extraordinary one.
We leave trails of where we've been, both in tangible and intangible ways. Let us all be more cognizant of the trails we leave behind so that our paths leave happy memories, not dust and dreariness.