Don't Drop the Duck

So I was juggling some rubber ducks at work today and had an epiphany (yes, even silicon bath toys stylized to resemble cartoon ninjas have their philosophic import). I continually dropped a duck on the fifth or sixth toss. This startled me because although I am not a professional clown or anything, I used be pretty decent at keeping three round objects in the air. That’s when I stopped and thought for a moment.

I realized I was staring at one duck – watching him go over and under the other two. Besides giving me a cross-eyed headache, it was preventing me from doing the most important thing in juggling – keeping your eye on the whole picture. See, when I was training to juggle I had a tendency to stare at the balls. I didn’t want to drop them so I felt the natural thing would be to follow the one about to drop next and switch when you caught it. Well…anyone who juggles knows that is just silly (plus the balls went everywhere so I gave up on that approach).

Truth is your brain knows far more than you admit and your eyes, while easily deceived, still process tons of information without your knowing it. To learn to juggle I had to get right next to a wall and stare at it while tossing the balls. They took a little practice, but I was able to get the hang of it and go on from there to practice anywhere and anytime even without a wall.

Once I remembered that simple truth, I began tossing the ducks with ease (and less pain in my head). Then I had my epiphany. See, life is often like the juggling of those ducks. We can get so focused on individual and seemingly important things (such as: I don’t want to drop the duck so I better keep my eyes on it), that we forget the effects of letting go of the larger picture (which is that you’ll drop the other ducks by such narrowed focusing).

Our souls are old and have a lot of known and hidden talents. We are capable of great things, but when we drop the ball (no pun completely intended) on one thing to focus on another we are often just creating more strain for ourselves. Let the little things go. Focus on living live happily and fully and the other parts will work out as you move forward. Spend too much time on one thing or another and the rest of your life comes to pieces.

I learned that last one the hard way these past several years. I obsess over things easily and it ruins the rest of my goals. My school work would suffer from locking in on one specific class or ignoring all of them for family things. But my family life would suffer from focusing too much on school (such as nine credit hours over a summer term while having a 20+ hour a week job). So for the next couple of months we are taking a break from the schooling. I am spending time with my kids and wife. We’ll work on the house, on our business (see other blog) and our health.

I am grateful our Father in Heaven gives us the chances to learn and grow without suffering severely for every single mistake. He loves us and will take care of us. He loves us enough to let us take those chances and learn from our mistakes, but is always there to help and guide when needed. I am thankful he loves me that much.

Oh…and I am thankful for my boss’s random collection of strange rubber ducks, without which this post would not be written.

I was juggling these (minus the blue one)