Today's reflection reminds us to find the plums in what might otherwise be an eyesore - to find the feast within the fast.
Being reminded of the nursery rhyme about Little Jack Horner, I found the earliest rendition of the rhyme from 1725 by Henry Carey:
Now he sings of Jacky Horner Sitting in the Chimney-corner Eating of a Christmas pie, Putting in his thumb, Oh Fie Putting in, Oh Fie! his Thumb Pulling out, Oh Strange! a Plum.
The concept children were taught from this and other rhyming children's stories, is to find the opportunity, represented, of course, by the plum, in whatever you're doing: the ultimate optimist who is given lemons and makes lemonade.
When I was a child taking flute lessons, my teacher at one point yelled at me for a mistake. He said, "If you're going to make a mistake, MAKE the mistake, and then don't ever make the same one again." Apparently I would get quiet during passages I was unsure about, and he would have a hard time telling whether I was playing it correctly or incorrectly. At least if I played it with confidence, he could then correct the mistake, and we could move on.
There is a feast of opportunities within our mistakes - opportunities to learn, to grow, and to eliminate that mistake from the whole feast of other mistakes out there that we can make. Why make the same one twice? Learn the first time, and find the feast.
Being reminded of the nursery rhyme about Little Jack Horner, I found the earliest rendition of the rhyme from 1725 by Henry Carey:
The concept children were taught from this and other rhyming children's stories, is to find the opportunity, represented, of course, by the plum, in whatever you're doing: the ultimate optimist who is given lemons and makes lemonade.
When I was a child taking flute lessons, my teacher at one point yelled at me for a mistake. He said, "If you're going to make a mistake, MAKE the mistake, and then don't ever make the same one again." Apparently I would get quiet during passages I was unsure about, and he would have a hard time telling whether I was playing it correctly or incorrectly. At least if I played it with confidence, he could then correct the mistake, and we could move on.
There is a feast of opportunities within our mistakes - opportunities to learn, to grow, and to eliminate that mistake from the whole feast of other mistakes out there that we can make. Why make the same one twice? Learn the first time, and find the feast.
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