Last night was my son’s turn to take the garbage out to the curb for this morning’s pick up. As you can imagine, he put up a bit of a fuss because what 9 year old LIKES to do chores like this? Not many I would guess. Well there were two cans to take so I took one and he took the other. It was in this “dirty” chore that we experienced one of nature’s amazing treasures.
An owl (I am not 100% certain on what type of Owl) swooped down less than 20 feet in front of us and then went up into a tree right next to the drive way. He sat there looking at us and then swiveling his head around as he picked up other noises (birds, dogs barking, cars passing by) all around. He stayed there for about 3 minutes and watched us as we talked about it and watched him.
My son wanted to go get the girls to show them but I cautioned him that the owl may not stay around once he moved. I convinced him to instead just stay still and enjoy the moment with me. We watched and whispered, I tried to take a picture with my phone (it didn’t come out in as high of quality as we had hoped), and we enjoyed a simple and yet profound “treasure” in life.
You see, taking the garbage out is necessary yet not glamorous, much like many other tasks and chores in LIFE. There are many other things I am sure each of us would rather have been doing. But we found the good in the experience and lost ourselves in it. We did not stay focused on the dirty job at hand but enjoyed a remarkable moment.
I hope that is a lesson that will stick with my son. That we can find the good in every experience we have. Imagine what he would have missed had he not taken out the garbage.
I hope that you will reflect on this story and apply it to your own life. What are you focused on in your own life right now? Are you completely consumed by the “garbage” or are you finding the treasures in everything you do? I challenge you to find the good in everything. It is by Law that there is a negative for every positive and a positive for every negative. Look for the positive, focus on it, and more good will come to you.
It has to, it’s the WOOHOOing Way!
