Update from Sep. 21, 2005

I haven’t quoted Captain Augustus McCrae in a long time, at least not in this article. He was the famous Texas Ranger in Larry McMurtrey’s book Lonesome Dove and further popularized by the television mini-series of the same name. One of his famous lines was given to Lorrie who was bent on getting to San Francisco. “Life in San Francisco is still just life”, he assured her. “The only healthy way to live, as I see it--Is to learn to enjoy the little everyday things.”

Lorrie was sad and crying and sure that everything would be better if she could just make it to San Francisco. There is a proverb or psalm cycling in my brain that says: “hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Certainly there will be times like this for everyone. But Gus is right, in my opinion, by saying that the only healthy way to live is to learn to find enjoyment in today. We are blowing many good opportunities by living an “if only” life. If only, I was somewhere else. If only, the weather would change.

I have many volumes of various forms of literature and collections of wisdom and they are all loaded with exhortations to enjoy the day, “seize the day”, “smell the flowers”, “keep on the sunny side”, and even suggest that we should rejoice and be glad.

Some old Greek fellow by the name of Herodotus said, “If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.” The scary thing about that quote is that it probably reminded us of ourselves or someone we know.

Another quote I found is attributed simply to Horace (I don’t think it is Horace Horsecollar but it might be); “It is sweet to let the mind unbend on occasion.” A local redneck friend of mine calls it; “getting your head right”. I would suggest that we need to incorporate this into our daily life—a period of refreshing. Mother Teresa left us with these timeless words: “To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it.” Human beings are no different. We need to refuel, sharpen the saw, refocus, and in so doing we are more productive when we return to our work and other endeavors of life.

Miguel de Cervantes gave us somewhat of a parable on this topic; “The ass will carry his load, but not a double load; ride not a free horse to death.”

With all of that said, I want to share some unique experiences that have happened of late that served to rejuvenate and refresh me. These are “little everyday things” that we too often overlook or pass by because we are too bent on “getting to San Francisco”. I “changed hats” a few days ago and assisted the maintenance department by cleaning up an erosion problem on the elementary playground. Dirt had washed in around the lower portion of the long slide on the playground and made the landing site unpleasant to say the least. I soon found that the dirt was extremely hard and the day extremely hot. But, I was gaining headway when I was invaded by a bunch of first graders.

I was asked “what are you doing?” in about every way possible by everyone of them through a toothless grin. I wouldn’t have missed that for the world! Soon they all decided to help me and as they filled their hands with dirt, rocks and gravel. Their parents would have been so proud! They were so excited and the slide suddenly became the most popular piece of apparatus on the playground with a long snaking line around the waiting area. “Why don’t you put a swimming pool at the bottom?” I tried to explain that I would fill the landing area with gravel but they liked their idea better.

My wife teaches kindergarten and she shared another good example of “little everyday things”. One of her students noticed that she was wearing a dress that day (a blue denim dress) and commented; “blue is my favorite color—but not that color of blue.” The comment was totally honest and pure with no ill will and at the same time priceless.

The final “little everyday thing” that I will mention came to me from another source and it makes me laugh and feel good every time I think of it. I am sure that almost everyone knows our longtime veteran teacher Mr. Blagg and how certain he is that proper working knowledge of a keyboard will enhance your life. He was observing his new crop of freshmen typists recently and made this comment to one who was wearing a W.W.J.D. (stands for What Would Jesus Do?) bracelet; “Jesus would have his fingers on the home keys!”

I hope you and I will take the message of this article to heart and insure that our day will include a search for or recognition of the “little everyday things” that really make life enjoyable. We are surrounded by them!

Peace!