One of my favorite things about the movie Up doesn’t have anything to do with sentimentality. Instead, it has to do with a character that represents a bit of humor in all of us. One of my favorite characters is the fluffy, not-so-bright, but adorable dog, Doug, with a collar that allows him to talk, and when he gets distracted, his head whips around as he searches and the collar loudly translates, “SQUIRREL!” Just as quickly, Doug will realize that there is in fact no squirrel, and he’ll get back to the point of whatever he was talking about beforehand.
Why do I love Doug? I love Doug because that squirrel moment, which happens to the other dogs in the movie when they get distracted, epitomizes humans. Don’t try to deny it because it happens to the best of us.
I can be going along focusing on just one thing, and all it takes is the bushy tail of one stray thought. I’m off and running. I drop whatever I’m in the middle of doing, and my entire focus shifts to that one random thing. Huge amounts of (wasted?) time later, I return to the task at hand, and I berate myself for getting distracted. Then I panic a little bit because I’m now behind schedule. Stupid squirrels!
Today, I was going along finishing items on my goal list. Email this person. Check. Respond to that one. Check. Review those items. Check, check.
Then comes the squirrel, “Did I wash down the shower after I sprayed it with cleaner earlier?” Off I go to check if I completed the task. No, I did not, in fact, wash down the shower, but it smells lovely now with the cleaner applied. Spray down the shower, manage to spray myself, go have a good laugh about it with the family, and return to my computer. Where was I before this? Ah, yes, I was checking emails and working on my goal list.
I should pick up where I left off. But wait! Did I write my Thursday blog post yet? Nope. I should do that. Off I go after that elusive bushy tail again.
Perhaps the goal of forever ignoring squirrel moments is not quite realistic. Rather I need to take satisfaction in the fact that, after I’m distracted by the bushy tail, I’m still capable of returning to the task at hand and picking up where I left off. After all, sometimes those bushy tails are kinda cute and funny.
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Inspirational verse for the day:
“This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.” 1 John 3:16 (HCSB – this translation refers to this as ‘Love in Action’)
All Things Subject to Change 