I have taken a fair bit of time do read and study over the past weeks. In my learning I was impressed with the need to focus on positive things. The book told of two men. One focused on loving good and the other focused on hating evil. While it sounds like much the same thing, it was vastly different. For the one who loved good, sought it out, found it and treasured it. In so doing, his life was rich and rewarding, he found peace, joy, contentment and felt great gratitude for what he had. The other man who focused on finding evil, found it. But his life was vastly different from that of the first man. For he was constantly irritated, and unhappy. His life seemed filled with discontent for there was never enough of what he thought he needed. He was miserable and seemingly forsaken. The point that was stressed, was simple and plain. The things that you focus on are what you will find, so in a nutshell, if it's bad - DON'T think it!!! It's as black and white as that. It will do you far more harm to focus on all the evils you can find than ANYTHING else in this world. If you want to be happy, find the beauty in life, on the earth and in the people you associate with. NEVER, under any circumstance stoop to think evil of ANYTHING! Herein lies the secret of happiness. To do this one must let go of the bad or they can never truly appreciate the good.
Anyway, the lesson was profound, and because I have discovered the beauty of focusing on love and joy, the truth of this lesson was not lost on me. It inspired me to try my hand at poetry. I am most definitely an amateur, but I enjoyed the challenge of trying to put this principle to rhyme as follows...
The Stumbling Block
- by Susan R Rice
Two men lived in a rich forest home
The first man on rock
The second on loam.
Each man protected that forest glade
The first man blessed it
The second man forbade
By name they were known as Wunder and Flinch
For Wunder was cordial
But Flinch was a grinch!
Each day as Wunder looked out from his rock
He found beauty and joy
In his morning time walk
For he loved what was good and looked willingly
For the joy in the sunrise
So happy and free
He delighted in rainstorms and admired the view
He cultivated happiness
In everything new
He looked over the mountains, and into the skies
Delighted in meadows
And small dragonflies.
And even when branches from trees were forsook
He cherished the storm
From whence they were shook.
Flinch on the other hand hated the bad
He doubted the robin song
To him it was sad.
He fruitlessly sought with all of his power
To control all the elements
Both the water and flower.
He quipped each morning, as he stood on the loam
"What evil today
Will I find in my home?"
For Flinch it would seem, lived under dark stormy skies
Where Wunder saw visions
Flinch only saw lies
And then one day in their peaceful abode
Adversity threatened
From Heaven flames flowed
The lightning was quick and sowed great unease
For the flames soon swallowed
Even the trees
The animals fled as they called their dismay
To one another,
"Get out of the way!"
And when it was over, all smoky and black
Flinch was sure he'd been right
To focus on lack
But Wunder walked carefully studying the earth
And soon discovered some
Vegetation and birth
As the days turned to weeks, and years soon sped by
Wunder drew strength
From the woods and the sky
He found kindness and beauty, and shared in goodwill
His devotion and zeal
Affect the woods still
For his life was full of the riches he gave
The riches of love
And grace that will save.
But what of Flinch over all these long years?
To him the great forest
Was just filled with spears.
For despite the lush green of the new plants at foot
He simply would not
Let go of the soot
To him his once beautiful home was a mess
Blackened and marred
It caused him distress
For each time the skies filled with rumbles and light
Flinch grew in his terror
And despaired in his flight
He was running in fear from the doubt and unease
That his negative thought patterns
Brought with each breeze.
Flinch found no joy in the emerald groves light
His friends such as worry and
Evil brought blight
He focused on hardship, never reaching new rise
For his soul decayed slowly
Overflowing with lies.
His fruits became misery, his companions were sour
His peace was destroyed
In that ultimate hour
He gave up his vision, his hope in the pure
When he focused on evil
And doubted a cure.
The woods were the life of each man that day
But the focus he chose
Brought him joy or dismay.
When life seems to be filled with ashes and grime
If you listen quite carefully
The answer is time.
Trust God in his goodness, his mercy and love
And Wunder of wonders
It's yours from above!
For the truth of this story is so very clear
Whatever you think about
Is what you hold dear.
This poem is called the Stumbling Block because sometimes there are things that seem to take all our attention. In the poem it was the forest fire for Flinch. He never got past it, but stumbling blocks are not fortresses, they are obstacles that can be conquered. By focusing on how unmoveable the stumbling block is, one will never overcome it. However, by focusing on how to overcome it, the stumbling block is in actuality diminished and becomes conquerable. What a wonderful lesson!
