Tools for Transformation Tuesday: Choosing Carefully

Last weekend, we escaped the city to visit our favorite farmer and take the babe strawberry picking. The date had been on our calendar for more than a month and looked forward to with great anticipation. As we drove, we discussed the pies, cobblers, salads, and drinks our bounty would provide, growing more enthusiastic with each new idea.

As we grabbed buckets and started down our designated row, we saw varying shades of red, a few with a hint of green, and a few that had been bruised by previous pickers. But within each plant were an abundance of perfectly shaped and colored berries. As we continued down the row, we became better able to look past the flaws to find what we sought. Before long, our buckets overflowed with perfectly ripe, sweet berries.

So often in life, our reality falls short of the ideal we establish in our mind. Your perfect job will come with at least one frustrating colleague or assignment. Your dream house will reveal at least one glitch over time. And no matter how compatible you are, you will have at least one fight with your soulmate. You can choose to focus on these imperfections, or you can instead appreciate the overwhelming good that surrounds them.

Can you accept the flaws you see as a small part of a much better whole? Can you focus on what is right instead of what is wrong?