Old Ideas

If it isn't what is happening right NOW, then it is already an old idea.

Someone shared this with me over the weekend and I am very grateful.  I have a tendency to hang on to old ideas that don't serve me very well.  Sometimes I bring up the past to "be right".  Sometimes I bring old relationship habits into new relationships.  And sometimes I do things because someone told me too, without ever looking at it with a new pair of glasses to see if it is the right choice for me right NOW.

I have to remember, “If I keep doing the same things, I'll keep getting the same results", and sometimes, that just doesn't make sense ;)

A little story....


One day a good friend of mine, Harry invited me over for dinner. It was “pot roast night” and he had been raving about his wife’s secret family recipe and how I would have never tasted a roast so good.

Sure enough, as expected, dinner was nothing less than spectacular. But I did notice something peculiar.

As the roast was being served on the table and the pot was being opened, I noticed that the roast had been cooked with its ends cut off… Being naïve, I asked the question, “Why are the ends cut off the roast like that?” The answer I got was “I’m not sure, that’s the way my mother used to cook it.” With no further explanation, I enjoyed stuffing my face on this spectacular feast. Harry was right, the roast dinner was absolutely brilliant!

A few weeks later, Harry came rushing into my office with a look of excitement on his face. He blurted out, “I must tell you the story of the pot roast….”

Last week my wife had her family reunion, and while we were chatting, the question of the famous pot roast came to my mind. I asked Mary’s mother, “Why do you cut the ends of your pot roast that way before you cook it?” She answered, “I’m not really sure, that’s the way my mother taught me to do it.”

Luckily the whole family was there and grandma was busy entertaining the grandchildren with stories of the good old days. I finally had a chance to get her attention and ask about the famous family recipe for the pot roast. She started to giggle, which turned into a belly laugh as I told her how her famous recipe had been handed down through the generations and no one was really sure how cutting the ends off the roast made it taste so good.

She looked me straight in the eye and said, “Harry, this is the funniest story I have ever heard….I’m glad to hear that my recipe has had such a great response, but the only reason that I used to cut the ends of my roast, was because I didn’t have a pot big enough to fit it in…” “I burst out into fits of laughter with her as she really made my day” said Harry.

Why Do I Do That?

Why is it that when someone accidentally slams a door in my face I get mad and resentful at the one person who does this? Why can't I focus on the 100's who have held a door open for me?

Why is it that I get mad at the driver who cuts me off and goes speeding down the road? Why can't I be grateful that other people let me in, don't cut me off and flow right along with me? And what if that driver that cut me off just got a call that his child was dying?

Why do I get mad when someone doesn't understand me? There are so many that do and so many I thankfully get to call friend?

Why can't I dwell on the 1000's of little things beautiful?

God, can You help me with this little problem I have with my perception? Thank You

Thoreau - Walden

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience..."