See the Trees

By William Lambert

I lived in Alabama on a half-acre lot blessed with huge oak trees that were 40 feet in diameter. They were HUGE! The house was laid out in such a manner that every bedroom faced the backyard and each bedroom had a large picture window. The view was breathtaking. I enjoyed just looking at the trees. In the fall, I would identify a particular leaf that was falling and watched it for what seemed liked 5 minutes before it fell to earth.

One day, I invited this married couple over to enjoy the view from the bedroom window. I took them into the bedroom and excitedly pointed to the trees out of the window and exclaimed, "Just look!"

After about 20 seconds there was no comment from the couple. I, however, noticed a big frown on the woman's face.

I said, "What's wrong?" She was reluctant to reply.

I insisted and again said, "What's wrong?"

She relented and said, "Don't you see those fingerprints on the glass?"

I turned and looked and there were what seemed to be fifty or more fingerprints on the glass. I ran for the Windex to clean the glass. The lady "Oh, I didn't mean for you to clean it now."

The morale here is this: That lady never saw the trees. Even when I tried to point them out, she missed it! As for me, I didn't see the fingerprints. I was looking through the glass and not at it.

When the fingerprints were pointed out to me, I saw them and removed them. The lady never saw the trees. She focused on the fingerprints and never got passed them.

Life is very much like that. There are things in life that are good and things that are bad. You choose which things you want to focus on. I focus on the trees.

What are you focusing on?