My ever so philosophical 9 yr old pipes up during supper; “Remember that parable of the poor man who went to the rich guys house and he chose the bell?”
“Sure, what about it?”
I knew just what he was referring to; it’s a parable loaded with life lessons. This poor guy watches in amazement as his wealthy host simply rings his bell at the dinner table and upon hearing the signal of the bell, a whole crew of waiters come out with the most splendid array of foods. When the poor man was offered to choose one thing from the rich man’s house to take home with him, the simple, poor guy choose the bell, not realizing that without the staff, food, money and preparations, no waiters would appear!
“So I did the same thing a little while ago…” he continues.
Now I’m listening, what was this deep insight he was about to share?
“When I was at my friend’s house a couple weeks ago he had a really cool Lego ship and I asked him for the two pieces on top so I can make the same cool ship at home; I tried it a few times, and it didn’t work; I realized that those were not the pieces I needed! It was the pieces underneath that held it all together, that’s what I needed!”
So philosophical indeed.
How often do we do that; we want the end result and forget the work that leads up to it…
Be it a college degree or a clean house, nothing comes without a plan, structure and action. And same thing with fine, well established and stable adults; you can’t pre-order them, and it starts with tuning into their every needs, like listening to every last detail of the fascinating Lego dragon my 9 yr old is building; or cleaning the toothpaste off the mirror that was deliberately painted there by my budding artists of 3 and 4 yrs old…it’s all part of the same package. And when morning comes and once more everyone rushes to the breakfast table to discover that the only cereal we have is the one they all (including the 11 month old) DO NOT LIKE (I could’ve sworn they all loved it yesterday…) I’ll remind myself the lesson of the Lego and my philosophical 9 yr old’s discovery; it’s not always what you see that counts, its the layers and layers underneath that hold it all together. And that’s what I’ll try to do…hold it all together.
Comment and please share your thoughts! I’d love to hear them!
Little Yellow Notepad 