I felt so bad. I got up from the couch to do what must be done after 2 coffees and a diet soda. On the way, I stepped on a little black bucket of fur. Pretty is normally quite sweet, but stepping on the family furball does not bring out her best. She snarled, then she barked, then she gave me the stink eye. I apologized, of course. Now here’s the funny thing. Pretty does not have the slightest comprehension of the English language. She knows her name and a few basic commands. Okay, she knows “No.” That’s about it. Well, Pretty was not happy with me, but she has good instincts. Ten seconds later she let me pet her and gave me an “it’s okay” lick.
My question is why do people harbor resentment over the smallest thing? Over 25 years ago, an old friend named Mike borrowed one of my books, then got fired from his job and moved without returning the book to me. I still remember that! It was just a book. I replaced it for about $7.00. But the memories of things that in the grand scheme really don’t matter like to stick around. There was a guy who worked at the post office several years back. And this guy took over as the interim boss. He was mean enough that I caught the flu, tried to work, got so sick I couldn’t drive a postal truck, and he made me stay out in the freezing cold for over twelve hours. I ended up in the hospital with pneumonia, out for 4 days, and he wrote me up for missing work time. All that got swept under the rug, and after a few months, he was gone. But it still eats at me to this day. It was actually a good thing. Six months later, I was in school, working on my Master of Information Systems Management.
Many of us hold on to the little things and the big things. But what does that past outlook say about our future outlook? Nothing!!! Simply put, yes, every road has bumps, but when we pass the bumps in the road, they are behind us. There is nothing left but moving forward. We can’t stay still. It’s not human nature. We can’t go back. And even if we could, we can’t change that which has already been done. We move forward. Some days the road is smooth, and some days it’s bumpy with tons of turns and forks. We make decisions on which path seems best. Sometimes it’s the right choice. Sometimes it’s not the right choice. And sometimes we take a path that seems too hard, but at the end of the road we find a resplendent locale that we would have otherwise missed. But if we look back along the way, focused on the bumps that we already crossed, we take away from our time to investigate what is to come. We struggle to view the bumps ahead because we are too focused on that which is now behind us.
Pretty didn’t just forget that I stepped on her. She knew it, she stepped up to tell me that, and then she let it go. And we move forward. My wife and I have arguments from time to time. My children can drive me batty from time to time. And if I focused just on those moments, I’ve lost the battle. There’s so much beauty ahead that I want to take my dog’s advice and move forward, enjoying the little things, getting through the bigger bumps and curves life has to offer. And every day, by focusing on the road ahead, with my beautiful family and pooches along for the ride, we look for the best path. We look for the idyllic setting, where we can stop, rest, and enjoy what life has to offer. Then we continue on, moving forward. In the grand scheme, I will say that the good far outweighs the bad. And the bad may slow us down or cause us to change course, but if we don’t look back, we will find ourselves experiencing an eventful and beautiful journey.
