The wisdom of Ferris Bueller…

“Life moves pretty fast.

If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

                                                                        —Ferris Bueller

lillibridge snow redrocks burlingon vermont

SNOW:

Last Wednesday morning I went for a walk in a park in Burlington, Vermont near my home called Red Rocks.  It isn’t too far from the hustle of the city but at a certain part of my walk I could hear nothing.  No other walkers, no dogs barking, no traffic sounds.  Nothing.  I was so content walking beneath the remarkable snow laden trees.  Out of the corner of my eye, about 50 feet off the path I first saw snow falling and then I witnessed two trees facing each other release their snow and snap back into place.

It  was spectacular.

The quality of the sound made it feel like I was the only person on earth.

MAGNOLIA BLOSSOM:

That experience reminded me of another quiet moment in my life that I will also never forget.  I like to cut branches and force blossoms to have something alive in the house during the dark days of winter.  When my son, Ellis was about two he and I were in our kitchen and he suddenly started wildly pointed toward the windowsill.  He was so excited about what he was witnessing.  I turned to see what he was pointing to and a Magnolia blossom was opening up before our eyes.  It was truly a moment to be treasured.

Still can’t find Waldo? Really?

Sometimes things are so obvious and yet we still can’t see.  We all have our blind spots and it can be actually comical how we choose to not see them.  It could be something painful, or an issue we just don’t want to tackle right now or a challenge that has become a permanent blind spot.  And no matter how glaringly the universe is revealing it to us—we have rendered it INVISIBLE.  Our brains are ridiculously adept at this maneuver.  I am trying something different now.  Instead of avoiding the issue (which I am masterful at, trust me) I am trying to address how I am FEELING about the issue at hand.  It’s actually a pretty big game changer and not too hard to get the hang of, but it requires practice just like anything else.

When you can identify the feeling,

sometimes the solution becomes way more obvious.

Example: I have twin 14-year-old girls.  They are sooooo loud.  The sing all the time (even at really strange times like during dinner in the middle of a conversation) and it makes me mad.  Actually mad.  So, the last time it happened I just said to myself, “Why is this making me so mad?”  The answer came immediately to me.  “I felt mad because I needed more time alone and some quiet to recharge”.  That was easily repairable (I took a bath) and the fall-out from getting angry at 14-year-old girls isn’t so easily repaired and all it took was asking myself one relatively simple question.

I am going to try to use the image of WALDO to remind me see the obvious.

WHY WALDO? TELL ME WHY?

“One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince