How often do we take life lightly and find joy?
We look back in fear, ahead to worry, and skip through the now. We admonish ourselves for not doing something right, or paying too much for an item that performs poorly, or get sidelined by injury because we weren’t paying attention.
It snowed a few days ago. And snowed. And snowed. After weeks of spring-like weather, my world turned to annoying white ice overnight. I needed to clear the driveway. I started with a shovel and a barking dog.
Silly me.
I tossed the shovel aside only minutes later to pull out the newly tuned snow blower. Grrr! I cleared the driveway and sidewalk in no time.
As I stopped to admire my work, I noticed Beck bounding in the snow like a jackalope. If you own “The Incredibles” on DVD there’s this short film entitled, “Boundin’.” It’s a great little piece about a dancing, preening lamb with a large ego who gets his beautiful, white coat sheared along with his pride. His sudden pinkness draws laughter from the other animals. As he stands lonely and dejected on the side of the road, a buck-toothed rabbit with antlers comes along.
This rhyming, mythical jackalope with a mid-western twang teaches the lamb that it’s what’s on the inside that will help him rebound from life’s troubles and discover joy.
Ice balls had formed on my eyelashes from all the snow that blew back into my face, so I returned to the cozy, warmth of my cave. I turned on the space heater for Beck and settled in at my desk to get some work done.
I didn’t think about the jackalope and lamb again until two days later when James invited me to play in the snow. We pulled on our warm and wooly gear and ventured outside. We went sledding down our hill, threw snowballs for Beck-the-jackalope to catch and chomp on, and added a brick of snow to the fort.
Spending time playing in the snow taught me something.
Dwelling on the list of to-do items, past mistakes and missed opportunities can drag you down. When you look around in awareness, and give yourself over to the moment, and not take everything so seriously, you can find joy. Try it.
