February Kinship Challenge: "The Worth of Souls"

Who knows the name of every man, woman, and child?

  There are people that have existed without being included in the written records and the great legends of mankind. These are the stories of countless millions who have lived and died, who have left seldom even their names to be recounted in history. Among these, are those once called father, mother, grandfather, grandmother... Unheralded in the grand halls of life for the great deeds of a simple existence, theirs becomes to us a personal lost legacy. 
 
   My mind has often given thought to such seemingly ordinary people; those common warriors who have fought on the battlefield of life, giving much but very little remembered. How can we call them common to whom so much is owed? But I speak of others as well, those who surround us daily to whom we seem to have no earthly connection, those who pass by us without so much as a thought, those who seemingly are as far different from us as could be reckoned.

 While my heart and mind have been brought to reflect on these things, I feel to ask the questions that come as a result -
 Who are they? Who knows their name? Who knows their story?

   I have known many men and women throughout the course of my life, only a small portion of whom I have been acquainted with by name. But I could never look on a single man or woman as if he or she were common. 
So many stories surround us constantly, one page of which we could not write in a single day. For contrary to the fanciful ministrel, who may write his stories - inventing a hero with some thought and filling the rest of his tale with other characters on a whim - there is no single person in this story to whom we may give more attention than the rest.
Those people who I would speak of today, would be nameless and seldom given description in the tales of the ministrel - these are the characters that will be forgotten in an instant or even given time, - but I would show you that no such thing exists in this world; I would have you know, that no man or woman, or child named or unnamed, is ever forgotten by the hand that wrote the true story.

And here I would give you an example of a woman of the race of men. She is herself no extraordinary example, accounting herself only as one of many who struggle from day to day to do, in her words, "only the best they can."
 She is certainly no hero in her own eyes nor one of greatness or important deeds in this world. She lives a life unnoticed by many and is content to let it be so, if only she may seek to please the one person she loves most.

 Though she wields no sword, no shield nor bow, she strives to uphold two titles worthy to be bestowed upon her; Defender - of the Home, and Guardian - of Virtue. 

Despite her contentment to live a quiet life, however, she, like many others in this world have been discouraged at times, feeling forgotten among the multitudes of the earth and weighing her worth to be of no consequence in the history of mankind. What sad feelings of worthlessness are so often the destruction of the most beautiful of souls. Though her efforts are to the end of pleasing that one, she cannot without much mental exertion forget the voice of peers who measure her by a wordly definition of greatness. Little does she know how such a degrading standard mocks and imposes itself even upon those considered great in this world... But the one who knows the worth of souls, for He has payed the price for each one, would not stand to let us believe such a deception.

 Thus, the woman who I have placed as an example here, not alone in her words at a time when she at length acknowledged the impossibility of pleasing both the one and the world, was inspired to write the words of a humble creature in saying;

"I'm just One Sheep in the Fold.
I'm not the sheep that is to lead...
with that beautiful, bright bell.
Nor am I the sheep that falls behind...
that the Shepherd always stays to tend.

I'm just One Sheep in the Fold.
I'm sorta shy, but I won't go astray...
Because I know I'm safer here,
and here is where I was told to stay.
But I'm still, just One Sheep in the Fold.

There's nothing particularly special about me.
Why am I so needed that the Shepherd would seek me if I lost my way?
I've given a bit of good I'm sure, giving what I can.
But it's not very much compared with what others give...
I'm just One Sheep in the Fold.

Yet somehow the Shepherd knows just which sheep I am.
He makes me feel like I'm the only sheep he tends.
Among all these great sheep I know, He seems to know me from all of them...
And He finds me even when I'm not lost.
He cares about me, just One Sheep in the Fold;
He worries about me, even when I'm well.
He carries me, even when I know my way.
He listens to me, even when I've got nothing to say.

How can one sheep among so many be worth so much?
I might never know.
But today and forever, I feel lucky...
Just to be One Sheep, in my Shepherd's Fold."  

I have seen that all are heroes who live worthy and try to do what is right. I have been shown how to value the one as much as the multitude, and to tend for them as the One has tended to me. 
Let us then always remember, that there are no "middle-sheep" in the greatest kingdom men shall know, and there are none who are unimportant in the unfolding story of this world. Let every man treasure his brother, treating with regard his neighbor, and living as best he can to honor the name he bears.

~ Skalithor Mountainzephyr
Father, leader, and friend.