Dave’s Musings: They Just Are

I read a story somewhere about a man walking into a bank that had one of those long rope queues that are really like a maze. There was no one in the bank at the time so he just ducked under and went to the front of the line.

While he was there a father came in with a little girl and they too ducked under and came into line. The child asked if she could go back and walk through the maze. The father said okay, and so she did — with an expression of delight on her face.

What a lesson for us all.

The adult saw the queue as an obstacle and bypassed it with impatience while the child saw it as an adventure and a chance to play — not a problem but a blessing.

As we become like a little child, as the great teacher Jesus said, we will approach every day as a fresh opportunity to experience the good in life. The obstacles will melt away when we abandon our adult expectations of difficulties. And we will begin to take ourselves and our experiences less seriously and maybe even find time to laugh — yes, even at ourselves.

Maybe we need to remind ourselves that each time we begin to label something a “problem” we need to look at it more closely and see if there is really an opportunity in the situation. What is being presented to us, that when received not as a problem but as an opportunity, could make our life better?

Often, it appears that situations come our way to encourage us to make changes in our lives — perhaps to lighten up, to slow down or to look for a different perspective than the one we have had all our lives. In other words, we have the chance to look at life from a more childlike perspective instead of being so childish and demanding our own way. As we do, we just might realize that good is all around us all the time.

It’s really our choices to see the good in situations and people — and then be happy about it. Like the rope maze in the bank, situations and people are neither good or bad in themselves. They just are. And it is only how we perceive them and then place a label of judgment upon them that makes them good or bad.

Think on this thought: This day I greet the world with the mind of a child. I expect and experience only good and spend the day in joy and peace and play.