Play the Ball Where the Monkey Drops It

This is a book I picked up at work by Gregory Knox Jones about why we suffer and how we can hope. This book is really helping me to reevaluate some of life's circumstances and unexpected events in a new light. The title comes from a story told in the introduction. British colonizers who were in India wanted to build a golf course and play golf. The monkeys in India at this time were quite prevalent and they became a nuisance to the British golfers. The men attempted to build fences to keep them out, but the fences could not keep the monkeys out. Furthermore, the monkeys liked to take the golf balls and deposit them other places. Eventually it became more of a nuisance trying to keep them out than to just deal with them. That's when the golfers decided to just play the ball wherever the monkey dropped it.

Yesterday, while reading, I decided to make a few lists. A list of the past (times in my life where the monkey has picked up the ball) A list of the present (things I'm worried about) and a list of the future (things I look forward to). The things I look forward to ended up being the longest list, but it sometimes gets the least amount of attention because so much is focused on the things I'm worried about and the hurtful things in the past when the monkey has picked up the ball.

So, on the days I need a good reminder, here's my list of things I look forward to. In no particular order, except the order at which they popped into my brain.

ordering graduation invitations
turning 27
getting my class ring
baby boy's birth
not being sick anymore
going to a UNT football game
mashed potatoes & gravy
creamed spinach
Life group
Rémy's first steps
studying for & taking my certification exams
Halloween with my little bat
graduation day
job interviews with school districts
developing my curriculum & meeting my students
prized alone time with Walker
putting together my boy's comic book themed room

It helped ease my mind a bit about the worries of the past and of the present to reconsider my short term and long term goals and take a peek at what the future may hold.