Life Is Like A Banana Under The Oven...

Instead Of A Box Of Chocolates

I find my life is more like the photo below.

I have a two-year-old granddaughter who is now able to get into a lot of things. That means my life is full of surprises. Things are often not where they belong, nor as they may appear.

These surprises extend to my work life, too. It's not every day I open up a machine to find dollar bills strewn all over the inside. In reality, it tends to be more quarters that need to be picked up. Interestingly enough, I also find quarters, nickels and dimes and pennies where the bills are supposed to go. That usually means the surprise of needing to get the bill acceptor back up and running. I like finding the dollar bills all over the inside of a machine much better.

Life is also full of reminders—that in a blink of an eye, it can change, for better, or for worse, and often when you least expect it. One moment you're traveling down the highway of life, trying to get to some destination. The next, you're blocking said highway lucky to still be breathing, and realizing the dull pain you're feeling in your head and neck is only the beginning of such aching, metaphorically speaking, you will endure as you jump through the insurance hoops and potential other issues such an instant can bring.

However, amid the surprises and bumps in the road, there are also the peaceful, blissful moments, where you not only have a chance to think, but to actually reflect on how good life can be. Just sitting in a park next to a river watching the water move inexorably downstream can bring back perspective and purpose. There still is good in the world, and meaning, if we can slow down enough to find them.

It might take a change of viewpoint, literally and figuratively, to get into such a frame of mind, but doing so on a regular basis helps to ground the mind and spirit in what's really important. You might find yourself wishing you were as seemingly happy and carefree as redheaded diving ducks, floating leisurely on the water's surface, plunging to catch a fish. It might take some doing to see them, though, because they're often too far away, or too busy underwater.

Beauty and goodness can be found closer to home, even if we don't know how it got there or what it might be. We can still enjoy its soft white petals with bursts of red. All it takes is leaving the house and going to the garden. You know, the part of the backyard overrun by weeds because you didn't have time all summer to work in it? It's amazing how life can manage to survive, if not thrive, without us. There are times to take control, and there are times to let things be.

Life, from what I can tell, was the first to have forks, long before man created utensils or blockchains. We truly never know where we're going to find them. Fortunately, some forks are easier to remove than others. The trick is to find joy and humor wherever we may be. Easily said. Not so easily done. But oh, so necessary.

If not, there's bound to be an orange ape laughing at our expense. Or the shock of a milk cow with green tinted sunglasses.

We don't want either of those things, now do we?

_{All images courtesy of Glen Anthony Albrethsen. All images shot with the iPhone 6s}