Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The Bathroom Door

Today at work I was walking down the hallway, past the rows of beige steel lockers, when I rounded the corner to see a tiny little person trying to push the girls' room door open. Let me emphasize 'tiny'. Like, maybe 40 pounds, soaking wet. Definitely a kindergartner. She was braced against the door like the human hypotenuse of a right triangle, pushing with all her little might in hopes of gaining entrance into that sacred sanctuary. By this time I had walked up to where she was. I was just about to ask if I could help when she suddenly stopped struggling with the door. She took a step back, looked up at the barrier in her path, and recalculated. I could almost see a little white thought bubble above her cute little head.

Noticing the metal piece on the left side of the door which indicated that the door opened in that direction, the little girl tried again, this time focusing her strength on the left side, rather than the right. As she pushed, the door slowly opened, allowing, at last, our hardy adventurer to pass through.

As I continued on my way I couldn't help but share in the girl's satisfaction. I pondered the deep things of life reflected in this common occurrence.

Sometimes even the simple things in life can seem beyond us. We're not big or strong enough to do some stuff alone. In those times we're blessed to have others around to help.

But there are challenges that we can conquer alone, if we take a minute to back up, think it through, and try again; attack the problem from a new direction. The door may still open slowly, but the point is, it will open. And we will be better off for having opened it ourselves.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

good reflection

Anonymous said...

Beautiful analogy, Lovely Lady! Well written, might I add. I hope you are well and adventurizing your life as usual. : ) Love you! Liz Martinez Dunstan

Anonymous said...

Cute story. I especially liked the thought bubble over the little girl's head. Could you imagine what it would be like if we all actually had thought bubbles. What a different world it would be:)