Beneficial Behavior 7/20/09

True wisdom lies in gathering the precious things out of each day as it goes by.

B. S. Bouton
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Be my guest.
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Every day should be accompanied by benefit and beauty in some form. That may seem like a hard struggle for you if you are suffering. The temptation is to dwell only on the ugly notes if there is nasty work to be done. Life should be one harmonious line. When the unusual becomes the usual and the only things that seems real and true are dead and stinking fish in the barrel, we forget that.

I think it's a matter of looking for, instead of looking at. I'm remembering the story about the freed slave, I believe it was Booker T. Washington, who was ordered by his employer to clean out a shed. After several tries, she still was not satisfied and told him to go back in and continue. When he finally succeeded it occurred to him that it took him so long to do the job because he had never seen a clean shed before. He had been looking at the chaos and not the order. This is another bit of legerdemain we perform on our troubled selves. I have a problem with this one.

I have so many troublesome messes in my life that I honestly am not sure I remember or can imagine what my life would look and feel like if the messes were all cleared up. Then what would I do? Create new ones? Maybe. I hope not.

But today's quote says there's a better way of looking at things, a different way. There are blessings to be had today. They may be already sitting around on your desk, or they may come in the mail or they may be something you have left unthought about. Why not look for and expect some of those things, instead of cherishing the troubles? It isn't a matter of looking on the brighter side of things. It's a matter of looking for brighter things. Sure it's a mood swinger to do that, but it's also a wisdom earner. Looking at only the wrongs, positive or negative, pulls the shade down on the sunlight of the bounty that belongs to you.

I once had a roommate who was a very religious man. He took a job as an unskilled construction worker. This man had a lot of personal problems to solve and he had to work very hard. But whenever he came home his acknowledgement was always a positive one about his day's work. He would say things like "Today the Lord taught me how to install a ceiling."

What are you going to learn today? That's the question.

DB - The Vagabond
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Come on, I want to see a smile.
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