Tunnel Vision

Sometimes, it helps to have tunnel vision. If every speck in existence understood its place in the universe, there'd be an awful lot of unhappy specks, don't you think? But the speck has nothing to be ashamed of. Specks didn't make themselves small and grainy and insignificant. They can't help it. They're specks.

And the view for this particular speck ain't so bad. Tonight it was fresh green beans, new potatoes, baked chicken, and strawberry cobbler. It was amazing . . . not because it tasted good. I mean, it was absolutely delicious. Best meal I've had in I don't know when. But other people, other specks, could have had the same thing just about anywhere else in the universe.

But nobody could have had the meal I had, because only I had the one made by my wife out of love that I know I didn't earn. The same love that brought us one kid that is just like me--picky, delightfully oblivious,imaginative, a tad unappreciative, and who would rather be doing his own thing than following directions from anyone--and another kid who at the moment has no choice but to digest whatever Mommy eats.

There are, elsewhere in the universe, other things to consider . . . other very important issues to consider and dream about. But in that moment at the dinner table, and at this moment remembering it, there was nothing else I cared about. Not my future plans. Not my job. Not my spiritual condition. Not Darfur. And certainly not my place in the universe. At that moment, I really liked my place at the dinner table, and the place I know I hold in my wife's heart.

Life is full of these moments when you realize you are loved; by God, by your family, by your friends, and even a little bit by the guy at Starbucks who knows you'll be back tomorrow. And you know that when you love someone else enough to make them the center of your universe for just one moment, you'll be making them feel just a little less speckish.

There's more to life than just this little tunnel, and I'll venture out of it to try and take on some of the things that need to be addressed. But for right now, the blinders stay on. I'm going to treasure this moment, this tunnel, that has in it everything I ever could have asked for.