What I Was Looking For (2006)

I wrote this little blurb a couple of years ago, but it is still relevant to my life today.

"I took my mom’s advice today. While I was vacuuming the kitchen floor, I couldn’t find the brush attachment. Making effort not to get frustrated, I did what she always recommends. “If you can’t find something, just start picking up and you’ll eventually run into what you’re looking for.”

For starters, I shook an afghan outside, sending my four-year-old’s snack size twix wrapper floating down into the flowerbed. Oh well, I’ll get it later when I do yard work.

Then I put the afghan back on the couch and scooped up a few toys returning them to the living room basket supply. While I was in the living room, I grabbed my sandals off the floor and went to toss them into my bedroom closet. There it was behind the closet door: the vacuum brush head. Lying next to a toy light saber and a little bulldozer, I knew my son had obviously stashed the items in a perfect hiding place. What a precious stockpile to remind me of my treasured little one! Who cares about a silly vacuum attachment? What I viewed as a distraction soon proved to remind me of the true joys of my life. I love my children!

Mom was right. In less than 2 minutes flat, I found what I was looking for- and a little extra. The good “finds” in life are not retrieved items, but truth revealed in everyday life."