Food for Thought: A Pretty Gift

We tend to see a pretty gift...

Wrapped all nice, pretty paper and bows.

We see it, we want it, we imagine in our thoughts all of what wonderful things are inside.

Gotta be something nice inside, right?

Because look how beautifully it's wrapped.

I GOTTA HAVE IT!!

Alas, we spend time opening it...

Carefully removing the expensive paper, removing the expertly applied tape and untying the bows.

We open the box and what we find inside is NOT what we were expecting.

We frantically try to close the gift.

But now it's too late.

Because we've seen it, smelled it, heard it, tasted it...

Felt it.

We hurry and try to close the box, but it is too late...

The damage is done.

It's on us. It's in us.

And the residue, it's hard to rub off. We rub so hard that we rub our skin raw.

The residue... the consequences are latched to us like a leach...

Taking us to unknown places, directions unseen...

And the regret, it settles in for the ride...

And the ride...

The ride is long.


Hmm... Interesting.

But I got that one day, maybe a week or two ago, after some of my ussal morning prayer. I am not particularly sure what was on my mind that day. But that came up.

I didn't understand it until I wrote it all down. Even now, it is still pregnant with revelation.

I can look back over my year, and well, really, my whole life and I can see how I went after things that were very appealing to me, but once I realized what was really going on, those things and people were not good for me at all. As a matter of fact, those people and things were a detriment to my life.

And once I realize this, it isn't so hard to walk away. I have made the decision to walk away.

But the residue of the interaction... it is long lasting. The thoughts, memories, regrets, decisions, etc... stays with me.

And this little parablish story goes a long way to explain something I've been trying to understand all week:

We can control what decisions we make, but we can't control the consequences of those decisions.

I was watching a program on TV, and the person said that we make around 200 decisions per day. Just on a daily basis. Decisions on what to do, what to say, where to go, who to interact with, etc.

That's a LOT of decisions.

But with those decisions come consequences.

Consequences are built into the decisions. They, these consequences, are the results of decisions. They come with the package.

They are what is inside the pretty gift box.

And as I get older, I am learning, in all my decision-making, to think about the consequences of the decisions. If I don't like the consequences, I most likely will squash the decision.

However, I have a long long way to go in that. Sometimes, I get it wrong. Sometimes I get it right.

I think for myself, the goal now, is to be sure to be brutally honest with myself. I am learning to examine the root of my decisions. It is at times, a painful process.

Because we want what we want, right?

We want that pretty gift.

But it is painful to realize that gift, although appealing, may not be the best for us. Too much mess can result from embracing it. And sometimes the sheer memory and thought of it... the residue left behind after we have gotten rid of what we thought was a great gift, is so hard to rid ourselves of.

Just a little something I've been thinking about concerning this "pretty gift".

Man, I could go on and on. I will be pondering it for awhile indeed.

And I will be sure to examine my pretty gifts more closely...

And what could possibly be inside.