The Hand/Top of the Stick

This picture of Daniel was taken by Merlin with my Mom's camera

In my College Essentials class on Tuesday we had an object lesson. It seems that is what this class is going to consist of. (At first I was a little annoyed with the class, but I am really starting to enjoy it) The lesson started out being a lesson about following directions.

Each of us in turn took a wooden stick and we had to balance it on a flat hand. We were told to try to balance it, but we could only look at the palm of our hand. We all tried and failed miserably to balance it for any length of time. The next time around we were told to balance the stick and look at the top of the stick, and only at the top of the stick. We were all able to balance it for a much longer amount of time.

Was this really about following directions? Well of course not! When we were done, our teacher told us to imagine that there was flag on the top of the stick that said GOAL and a label on our hand that said TODAY.

The lesson? Well, if we focus on today, we will not be able to hold onto our goals. If we focus on our goals it is much easier to correct the path of today (our hand) to balance our goals (The top of the stick).

So I came home from school and told Daniel about the object lesson. More or less making fun of it. I have never really understood the purpose of object lessons.

Later that night Daniel and I had a serious and not so fun discussion about our relationship. (oh the fun things adults get to talk about!) At the end of our discussion, I asked him why he wanted to be in this relationship even though it is really hard sometimes.

His answer? (be prepared cause he just likes to prove that he is perfect)...

He said because I am focusing on the top of the stick and I am trying not to pay too much attention to the hand right now.

Not only did that show that he was listening, but that comment means a lot to me. If we were to focus on our hand (Today) right now, it would be easy to let the top of the stick (our future) down.

We will keep our eyes up and not focus too much on today and the future we want will be ours.