The Joy of living with '3-year-olds'

How long has it been since you became giddy with joy just watching a bee scoot around a daisies’ pollen-laden center, amazed at how the bee could fill its pollen basket (also known as the corbicula) with so much pollen and still be able to fly?

When did you last watch a procession of ants, being filled with wonder, and then try to follow the line to its end?

These are just a couple of the wonders my young Scotties have helped me enjoy seeing recently.

The Scotties were born in Idaho during the late fall. Cold had already killed the summer’s insects, and the puppies lived together alone as a pair in a small kennel for fifteen weeks of winter. They were fed once a day and only saw people when their feed bowl was dropped off or when they were given shots. In other words, their world was very small.

Now, living in a large backyard filled with flowers and grass, everything in the yard is new and thrilling. Going downtown in Sisters and seeing lots of people and dogs, is almost more than they can handle, because they become so enthralled with it all.

If you have ever spent time with three-year-old children, you’ll remember that they greet the world in the same way. For they are filled with excited awe and wonder too.

That excitement is contagious. It’s impossible to not get a fresh look at this amazing world when you are in the company of others who experience its astounding wonders for the first time. Life gets better in their company.

Books have been written and movies have been made about the thrill of having a chance to see the world in a fresh light. Adulthood tends to dull the joyful wonder of life. We tend to become jaded and even cynical.

Do we enjoy that cynicism and do we miss the wonder? I do. I’ve really enjoyed finding a fresh world again.

My faith in a higher power even grows when looking at things anew. It lets me see again how much I take for granted about life.

The Scotties are reminding me to look anew at how delicate and beautiful a spike of blooming lupin flowers are. Then, I’m reminded how amazing it is to watch those fragile flowers turn into bean-like seed pods.

The complex mechanism which directs that transformation life is as complicated as the amazing method that makes a caterpillar transform into a butterfly. There is some awesome power and intelligence directing those processes.

Cynicism closes the mind, and often, that closed mind is pretty empty. Cynicism also destroys trust. How can you trust anyone or any process that you don’t believe in?

Open minds accept many ideas and approaches to things. Open minds give others a chance to show they are good and honest, without condemning them at the very beginning. The openness allows for the mind to take in a great deal of information, analyze that information and ultimately make an informed decision, rather than a knee-jerk reaction to something or to someone.

These are some of the reasons why Jesus said we must come to God with an open mind if we are going to develop real faith.

This awesome, intelligent, creative Energy that we call God is so vast and so far beyond our limited, three-dimensional human understanding, that we only begin to understand it if we study, and we take in vast amounts of spiritual information. Then we can begin to build a limited picture in our minds of what this Power is that exists around us and in us, and that can create and direct complex life and the universe.

In 1508, Pope Julius II directed Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with a picture of God. His intentions may have been good. He wanted people to feel closer to God and we all related to the human form.

The painting became very effective. Even today people often talk about God as if he is an old, white bearded man sitting on a throne in heaven. One problem with this depiction is that it greatly limits one’s understanding of this awesome, intelligent, creative Power or Energy which is without limitation, is everywhere and in everything all the time.

Take a moment to think about this; God’s Power is the energy that endlessly spins all electrons in each and every atom in your body and throughout the universe.

We are each, as spirit, an individualized essence of that Power. This is why we can so often do so much more than we think we can. We, our Spirit, is limitless. The only thing that holds us back with any limitations is our physical body in which we live during our journeys on earth.

We can walk on water, as Jesus did, if our spiritual awareness is high enough. Jesus told us that was true, by saying that sometime in the future we will achieve that level of spiritual growth.

But we will never reach that level if we remain closed-minded or cynical about the world. We must become, like children, having a wide-open mind. We must see past the dullness of everyday living and find the wonder of real life, God’s world. Maybe we must spend some time with children or Scottie puppies and see the world anew.

But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:7-10 (NIV) .