The Trouble Tree

Here's a nice little story that was passed to me.  I do not know who the original author is, but I like what it has to say. Enjoy it.
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I hired a plumber to help me restore an old farmhouse. After he finished a rough first day on the job, a flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric drill quit and his ancient one ton truck refused to start.

While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches
with both hands.  When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation. His face was wreathed in smiles and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.

Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.

'Oh, that's my trouble tree,' he replied 'I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing's for sure, those troubles don't belong in the house with my wife and the children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home and ask God to take care of them. Then in the morning I pick them up again.' 'Funny thing is,' he smiled,' when I come out in the morning to pick 'em up, there aren't nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before'.
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We should all have our own Trouble Tree. Sometimes, just laying our troubles down to tend to themselves for a while, or just putting some distance and breathing room between us and them, they'll seem lighter when we  go pick the up next time. Sometimes our perspective changes, sometimes -- after a good night's sleep -- we just start to realize that mountain wasn't as high as we thought it was.

However you practice it... every now and then... just hang your troubles up and forget them. Pick them back up in the morning.

Have an awesome day.

Kelvin

Have a Frivolous Friday!

I was talking with a friend a few weeks back, and she was telling me about one of her co-workers who as upbeat and positive and liked to add adjectives to his daily greetings, like marvelous Monday, terrific Tuesday, wonderful Wednesday and the like. After all, "marvelous Monday" is much more uplifting than, "Ugh... back to the grind."

I thought it a rather smashing idea, and considering you shouldn't use the same adjective each week, can become quite challenging coming up with new ones. BUT... I love it. Yesterday could have been a thundering Thursday, for instance.

At any rate, today I borrow the thing that my friend borrowed from her co-worker. I wish you a Frivolous Friday! Do something fun today -- make someone smile ! (someone new, not just the normal crowd you pal around with.) Make it a movement to SPREAD a little joy!

I'll be listening to see how creative you got :-)

Have a happy!

Kelvin

All that from making a cup of tea...

I had a visitor this weekend who "taught" me something (speaking of the boxes we operate within...) and they don't even know it. My friend wanted some very hot water for her tea, so she got one of my pans, put water in it. placed it on the stove, then turned the burner (electric) up on VERY HIGH, and in short order -- seemed like just a few seconds, really -- the water was boiling feverishly and begging for attention.

In all the years I've used that stove to heat things up, it never dawned on me to turn the burner up on HIGH or VERY HIGH to heat it up quickly, then re-adjust the heat to the "operating" temperature I needed. I've always just turned it to medium and waited... and waited... and waited... until it crawled it's way up to where I needed the temperature to be.

Do you realize how much time I've wasted standing in front of that stove waiting for a pan of *something* to boil, or get hot... just using medium heat? (sigh)

I'm looking at other areas of my life, and realizing that I'm using just medium heat and waiting for something to happen when what I really need to do is turn it up on high and get it heated up quick... Then I can adjust my effort back down to where I need it to be to sustain it and keep it going.

Wow. Definitely a V-8 moment. And all that from just making a cup of tea.

Kelvin