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Close Proximity( Vol. 4, No. 25) Have you ever seen something that you just knew you would have to have? We now have one of those. I could spend the rest of the day letting you guess what we have. But neither you nor I have the rest of the day to pursue such games. I’ll just be direct. We now have a bird bath in the shape of the great state of I know, I know. It’s hard to believe. But we saw one, we wanted one, and with the help of my brother-in-law, Jim, we have one. I have no idea whether or not these bird baths are rare. I just know that I’ve only seen two of them – the one in Jim’s back yard and the one in our back yard. (Of course, there is a possibility they are really rare and there’s only one of them – the one that’s in our back yard and the one that was in Jim’s back yard.) So now we have this really exceptional bird bath. I was out of town when Jim brought it, so it resided in our garage for a couple of days. As soon as I returned, the deep philosophical discussion regarding placement began. Nancy and I ran through the objectives. “First, it needs to be where birds are.” Thus, our first criterion was met when we moved the massive structure into our back yard. “Second, it needs to be where we can see it.” Second criterion, location within the vortex of vision from our kitchen windows. “Third, it needs to be where the yard man won’t knock it over with the mower.” Personally, I thought that we were being overly-cautious with this one. To date, I have never knocked over a bird bath with the mower. Just to be safe, we placed our tribute to the Our new treasure is now in place. We even went to the trouble of leveling the ground beneath it so the birds could bathe in an environment devoid of asymmetry. But all of this was not as easy as I’ve made it sound. We also had to find a new place for the colored pinwheel that has adorned our yard. It just so happens that we have only one perfect location in our back yard for decorations and now the bird bath occupies it. Having watched a few episodes of “Trading Places,” I have a highly-developed sense for decorating. So I stuck the pinwheel five feet north of the bird bath and we called it a night. We’ve watched the bird bath for over 24 hours now. Comparing notes, neither Nancy nor I have ever seen a bird come close to it. However, tonight as we ate our supper, we both commented on how pretty the pinwheel was as it spun frenetically in the “Fourth, bird bath needs to be away from things that frighten birds.” Tomorrow I’ll move the pinwheel to the other side of the yard. Pinwheels are easily re-positioned. Moving the leftovers of our previous lives is much more difficult. On more than one occasion, I’ve eagerly introduced something new in my life only to find that the “old me” was too overpowering. Even when the something new is something I really want. It’s an age-old battle. Paul talked about it in Romans 7 when he said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Move some of those brightly-colored distractions from your life. Let the new take over.
Shine On!
copyright 2004 Joe L. Cope
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