Jelly Jar
Over the weekend our family visited an apple orchard and one of the treasures we brought home was a small jar of crab apple jelly. I could hardly wait until a chilly morning when I could pop open the jar and have some fresh jelly on toast. TODAY WAS THE DAY! However, the lid on this particular jar of jelly was on really tight. How tight you ask? Tight enough that it didn't respond to any of the time tested tricks I use like running the lid under hot water for a bit or tapping the sides of the lid with the handle of a butter knife. It got the lid hot and the lid is now full of ding marks, but it was no looser than when I started. My last resort under these conditions is to use my Pampered Chef rubber gripper, which I always keep in the drawer next to my stove with my hot pads. I opened the drawer and looked - NOT THERE! I looked in other likely drawers - NOT THERE! I went back to the hotpad drawer - NOT THERE! I tried the knife and the hot water again as I really wanted my jelly, but those methods still didn't work. I looked in the drawer again - NOT THERE! I walked away and came back once more and pulled everything out of the drawer and what did I find buried in the very back of the drawer all scrunched up in a ball? My super jar opener - DELIGHTED!
As I was enjoying my toast with fresh crab apple jelly, I couldn't help but think about this analogy. What if I wanted to see something in a person - something I liked - something I agreed with - something I was interested in - something positive and I looked at them the way I first looked in this drawer - once, twice, three and four times. I glanced - I didn't really look and so I assumed it wasn't there. I believe I do that with people or situations quite often. I give a half-hearted try and then when I don't easily see what I am looking for, I give up and assume it's not there. What if I told myself that I knew what I was looking for was in there somewhere if I just looked a little harder or a little longer? Might I find something I really wanted and be delighted?
I know that every situation and every person might not have what I am looking or hoping for, and we can't always justify the time it takes to look deeper. I'm not saying I need to do this for every person and every situation, but I do believe I may give up too quickly sometimes because it's not obvious to me. So, I'm going to experiment with this perspective for awhile and see what else I can find. Anyone else want to experiment with me?
One last thought - we might even do this with ourselves! Perhaps there are things that we give up on too soon - we don't put in the extra time or effort to get it right. Check out the video linked to the jelly jar and see if this little girl's message doesn't inspire you to keep trying!
