On one of my morning walks I came upon a honeysuckle vine in full bloom and stopped to enjoy the beauty and aroma that it offered. Moments later I came upon a poison ivy vine … and avoided it completely.
That’s what we’ve got to do in life. Enjoy the beauty … take it in and inhale the aroma of the good and the pleasant. At the same time, we must be aware that the unpleasant does exist, but we don’t have to dwell on it, stand over it, examine it and involve ourselves in it to the point where we forget about the beauty. That’s like putting poison ivy up to your nose and sniffing it when a honeysuckle vine is just a few feet away.
I’ve seen many people whose take on life is so negative and skeptical because they immerse themselves in the ugly and the unpleasant things that are going on in our world. They’re standing in a patch of poison ivy, wondering why they’re so irritated (and itchy). Look for the honeysuckle vine … it’s there. Yes, I know terrible things are going on in the world. My head is not stuck in the sand …but it is stuck in the honeysuckle vine.
