Lessons from a rubber chicken.

This chicken head was posted on a thread at the Scrap Etc message board a couple of days ago. My kids have been laughing at it everytime they see it. It's funny. Just that...funny. I set my desktop background to this picture- in 'tile format', so there were about 36 of these on the screen. It was just a joke (and to be honest with you, I don't even know the whole story behind this silly chicken, other than it will be appearing at the Scrap Etc Inspiration Event...and I won't be there to see it in person. SO it goes...) and I laughed along with my kids at the sight of this chicken for the past couple of days.
Chip didn't quite see the humor in it, but that's alright. He still let the rest of us get our giggles, and didn't make a fuss about it all that much. Mostly he just rolled his eyes at me.
So, I understand that not everybody 'gets' my sense of humor. Not everybody understands the whys and ways in which I do things. Sometimes I don't even understand myself...but when it comes to this blog, it's pretty much a 'take it or leave it' approach. I put myself out here. I make jokes, share photos, tell stories, voice my opinion, present challenges, offer advice, ask questions, expose my faith in God, and any number of other things that come up in my thoughts/life at any given time. I just find it sad (after deleting yet another anonymous comment) that some people just can't take a joke and have to constantly look at life from a 'jaded' perspective. I can't express enough how short life really is in the scheme of things, and it makes me sad that there are people living life from day to day, who I feel truly don't "get" all there is to be had in life. Their negative attitude or life experiences cause them to try to bring others down and robs them of the joy they could have if only they could live and let go.
In my earlier post, I joked about inviting strangers at Starbucks to read my blog. I have nothing to gain from such a thing- even if someone took me up on it. I just threw it out there- more as a commentary on what marketing really is about. What I do know is that an anonymous person(s) who has such distaste for my blog, is still reading it after weeks of accusing me of not spending enough time with my family, and for needlessly wasting time updating this blog. I find that to be a backwards compliment. Someone dislikes my blog so much that they keep reading it.
My point is that life is so much bigger than little negative comments. There is a lot of living and joy and rubber chickens out there to embrace and love and laugh at.
There are small things (like Free Starbucks coffee) that bring moments of joy for no big reason...but they are worth sharing with others in life. I totally get that some people have lived through some really bad stuff in life, and it affects them to the core. I get that. Really, I do. I'm not telling everyone to go out, buy a rubber chicken or drink some Starbucks and life will be all happy and carefree. It's not like that at all. BUT, there are little things in life, all along the way, that we can see, touch, feel, smell, embrace, taste, seek and make an effort to find IF we are willing to keep ourselves open to their possibility.
So, there it is. My Nitty.Gritty. lesson from stumbling across a photo of a rubber chicken. I know it won't strike everybody funny in the same way it did for me and my kids. Chip was my real-life example of that. But that's the essence of this lesson. We all come at life from different directions. I can't pretend to know and understand why you say/do the things you do. I keep my blog as a small snippet of my life that I share in this way...but still, it's not the whole me. I just hope that each of us keeps embracing goodness, happiness, joy and even trials in life as they come...and seek to respond to them as best we can.
That's what I'm saying. The good news is there is always hope for everyone to find joy in life. Even if it starts with a silly rubber chicken.