What’s Wrong with This Picture?

Sometimes we have to unlearn something in order to have a more enjoyable experience. Waking up this morning, looking up through the skylight, I noticed (again) a small area where the painter hadn’t cleaned off a missed brushstroke. The thoughts began to arise (again)….not being careful, not paying attention, not caring…..and carried me along a well-worn path that I’ve now named, “What’s Wrong with This Picture?”

I realize I’ve been playing this game since I was small. If you’re old enough, you may recall a children’s magazine called “Highlights”. I think that’s where I was first exposed to a regular feature by this name. You were to look closely at a picture until you found the things that were wrong with it. Sometimes there were several things wrong. I got really good at this game.

Evidently I got so good at it that I carried it with me and applied ‘the rules’ everywhere I went. For years. Until this morning. I’m riding this train of thought, and a piece of a cloud drifts by. In a blue sky. That’s what I can see when I look through the skylight instead of at the skylight. Wait! Wait!  Stop the train! What if we play a different game? What if we play “What’s Right with This Picture?”

My thoughts hop off the track and walk into relatively uncharted territory. From here I see how blue the sky, how fragile and lovely the clouds. I realize that I still don’t know the answer to, “Why is the sky blue?” I marvel at the way water vapor floats and attracts more water vapor into denser accumulations, and wonder at what point the saturation causes raindrops to fall.

Now I’m thinking, “Here’s a train I’d rather be on!” First, though, I have to lay the tracks. So, today, I’m playing “What’s Right with This Picture?”, and you’re welcome to join me from the comfort of your own home. We’re not going to define right or wrong, we’re just going to hop off the track and walk away whenever we notice our thoughts pointing out what’s wrong. Then we can appreciate what’s right.

I’ll be interested to see whether I can learn this new game.

See y’all.

Marcel LaRose