“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was:  ”If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”  But…the good Samaritan reversed the question:   “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

The cycle of the week has turned, and once again we find ourselves staring into the face of a brand new Monday.  I know it means that the weekend is over, and I know it means we now return to our routines — whatever they might be — but Monday is always one of my favorite days.  After the rest of the weekend and the departure from the sameness of the workweek, I always arrive at Monday with a refreshed mind and a new opportunity to review how it is that I want to live during the week ahead.

We make many decisions and choices every day that affect our way of living.  Not all choices are black or white, good or evil, right or wrong.  Some choices arrive in shades of gray; and rather than shouting in our faces that we must mend our mistakes and find the correct path, they whisper in our ears, “you are doing well — now do better.”  Every day offers us chances to reverse the questions that we face.  Every day offers us chances to change our point of view and consider veering off the paved road and onto a new path.  Every day challenges us to find the path that will take us to our destination by another route — one that is paved with greater love, greater understanding, and greater compassion for our fellow man.

I love Mondays, because there is a natural desire in me to take stock at the beginning of a new week.  Today I will make it my intention to reverse some questions and see whether there is a better path for me to walk.  After all, when the Samaritan asked, “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” the natural progression of the question is to follow up with, “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”

We all are one.  We all walk this planet together.  Every step that I take affects the walk of every other person who shares my world.  We must learn that compassion for one is compassion for all.  We must step off the paved road and on to the trails that are blazed with love and caring and peace.  We must lose the fear that if we change for the better something bad might happen to us.

Monday is a perfect day for starting again to live the lives we were born to live.  If we do not, what will happen to us?