Things Are Looking Up

Twice a week I help my wife with babysitting our 2-year-old granddaughter. This past week I took her to a park area with a playground a couple of times and it was really fun for her…and surprisingly fun for me too. Seeing her eyes light up when she spots things she hasn’t seen before or hearing her laugh when she watches a little lizard run by, makes me laugh too.

However, I noticed something when she dropped her Mickey Mouse Doll and couldn’t find it. I didn’t know where it went, but she pointed it out to me underneath the slide because her viewpoint is so much closer to the ground than mine. So I looked where her finger was pointing, and then had to crawl on my stomach to reach the toy. While I’m down there, I realize that this is basically her current view of the world. I mean, when you’re only 28” tall, everything you see is mostly at ground level. That’s probably why we spent a lot of time looking at plants and flowers, picking up sticks, using the sticks to draw in the dirt, checking out the rocks, and laughing at the bugs and butterflies.

And that got me thinking… When we are young, we tend to focus on things down low and get excited by Mother Nature, and that’s a very a cool introduction to the world. But when we get older and have to face the all the difficult issues that come with adult life, we need to start looking up and get excited about Father God!

I thank God for this most amazing day, 

for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a true-blue dream of sky. 

And for everything which is natural… which is infinite… which is He.

~ E. E. Cummings

It's Who You Know

I’ve been on vacation in Kauai for a couple of weeks, so I haven’t put out a Monday Message lately. But actually, being on vacation in such a uniquely beautiful place has given me a lot of ideas for future Monday Messages. 

For example… I love to golf at the Makai Course in Princeville, Kauai. It’s probably one of the top 10 most beautiful golf courses on earth. So I’ve played quite a few rounds while also getting to know a lot of the people that work there. Yesterday, I was paired up with a young couple that had never been to the Makai Course before. As we waited around for the starter to send us off, three different Makai employees walked by us and everyone of them said, “Aloha, Joe, how you doing?” And when the starter, Hideki, said we were good to go, he said, “Joe, will you please lead this young couple out to the 10^th tee box for me?” (The front nine was closed for construction).

On the way to the 10^th Tee box, an employee in a golf cart stopped and offered us some fresh pineapple. I took a few minutes to talk to her and thank her for the good treats. When we finally got to the 10^th tee and got ready to play, a maintenance worker also drove by us and said “Hi Joe” to me. I guess all that friendliness made an impression on the young couple I was with, because the young man said, “Wow! Does every person on this island know you?”

My response was - Well, the thing is, this is their home, this is where they live, work, and play. I’m just a visitor here. So I feel like it’s not important that they get to know me. What is important… is that I take the time to get to know them. Which is what I try to do.

And that got me thinking… You can expend a lot of energy trying to get noticed, or you can simply smile and be nice to people and their energy will often come right back to you!

Makai Golf Course, Princeville, Kauai

What can one person do? One person can prove false the notion that nobody cares.

 ~ Robert Brault