After two heavy blogs talking about desperation, I promised you something a bit more uplifting today. Let’s start with a joke.
A man was driving down a country road when he saw a farmer standing in his yard. The farmer had picked up a pig and was holding the pig up to an apple tree so the pig could eat apples.
The man pulled over, got out of his car, and asked,” Why are you holding that pig up to the tree? Wouldn’t it save you a lot of time if you just shook the tree, let the apples fall to the ground, and then let the pig eat them?”
The farmer thought for a moment and replied, “Well, maybe. But what’s time to a pig?”
What I get out of that joke is sometimes it’s all about enjoying the moment, even if it doesn’t make perfect sense. If the farmer enjoyed watching his pig eating apples, then it’s really none of our business how he made it happen.
Sometimes we get so caught up in doing things “right” or “efficiently” that we take the fun out of doing it.
My family has a terrible habit at Christmas and birthday parties as the kids are unwrapping their presents. It has become a tradition. Just before the unwrapping begins, there is a mad dash to retrieve a garbage bag for the wrapping paper that is about to be removed. As soon as the child removes the wrapping paper from their first gift, and usually before the discarded paper even hits the floor, an adult swoops in, quickly retrieves it, and puts the paper into the garbage bag. Efficient? Absolutely. Necessary? Hardly.
The thought behind this process is to keep the removed wrapping paper from accumulating and cluttering up the room. It also assures the opener of the packages has plenty of room to maneuver when opening the rest of their packages. The reality is, there is such a flurry of activity to retrieve the removed wrapping paper that no one pays attention to the joy on the child’s face when they reveal their present, which of course, is quickly removed from their hands and replaced with a new one to open. It’s all very efficient.
Now I will be the first to tell you that if a young child is allowed to completely take their time when opening presents, it could take forever. The child not only wants to see what they’ve gotten, but also wants to open the box or container and remove and immediately start playing with each new toy. That is, of course, unless the gift contained clothes, in which case the new clothes are immediately cast to the side in pursuit of the next gift which the child hopes will contain a toy.
So, there should be a happy median. There is no law that says removed wrapping paper must be immediately collected and bagged; nor is there any law that says a person shouldn’t be allowed time to admire their gift before having it removed from their hands and replaced with another. We just need to find the sweet spot.
It may make perfect sense to immediately remove the discarded wrapping paper, but in the interest of allowing the child a moment to enjoy it, perhaps we should institute a moratorium on wrapping paper retrieval. The thought of that made me chuckle. I can imagine a Sergeant at Arms appointed at each party whose sole purpose is to stand there with a stop watch and blow a horn when the appropriate amount of time has expired allowing grownups to swiftly swoop in to retrieve the discarded paper.
We don’t need to go to those extremes, but perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned. Take time to smell the roses. Life doesn’t always have to be so organized. It doesn’t always have to be so efficient. Sometimes life is better when it’s allowed to flow naturally and simply enjoyed.
What does all of this have to do with Myasthenia Gravis? Perhaps nothing; maybe everything. We become so conditioned to our regiment and trying to be “perfect” and “efficient” in our fight with MG, that we sometimes forget to take a moment to smell the roses.
I’m quite guilty of this. I get up between 4:00 am and 5:00 am each morning. It used to be closer to 6:00 am, but for some reason, my internal clock has started to creep and won’t allow me to sleep any longer. I’m blaming it on Daylight Savings Time. In any event, immediately upon arising, I eat a piece of toast and take my pills. I then turn to my iPad to read two daily devotionals. When finished, I read the news or maybe play a few games that are supposed to help my memory. My wife wakes up later than me, so when she wakes up, I eat my real breakfast. I then go to the computer to research or write a blog. Do you see where I’m going with this? I’ve become so caught up in routine that I don’t allow room for noncompliance. I don’t take time to smell the roses. I need to change that.
I need to assure smelling the roses and making gratitude an attitude are both a part of my everyday life. Not scheduled into my already too restrictive schedule but allowed to flow naturally. I’ll have time to pick up the wrapping paper later. For now, I just need to take a few minutes to enjoy and be grateful for the gift of the new day God has given me.
I doubt that I’ll be lifting any pigs to help them enjoy apples directly from the apple tree, but I’m not going to lose sight of the smile on my pig’s face when he finds another apple to eat. I’m taking time to smell the roses and to be grateful for the many blessings God has given.