The world is my oyster

Have you ever been to an amusement park and seen a pearl diver?  One of those places where a person will dive down, gather oysters and then you get a surprise as to what size pearl will come out of the shell.  Have you ever wondered how those pearls got in the oyster.  Unfortunately, oysters are not  born with a pearl, they actually produce the pearl as a way of removing an irritant that gets into their shells.  When  piece of sand or small rock gets into the oysters mouth, they produce saliva to coat the particle and it eventually turns into a beautiful pearl.  So when you see a lady wearing a real pearl necklace, try not to laugh to hard when you remember that she is wearing oyster saliva around her neck.

Anyway, I say all that to say this.  I was on a run this evening and I got one small piece of something in the toe of my shoe.  Normally, one little particle wouldn't even be noticeable, but I was running in Vibram five finger shoes and I don't (can't) wear socks with them.  Therefore, that one little piece of something quickly became a problem and ended my run much earlier than I was hoping for.  I now have a small blister on the pad of my big toe - NOT COOL!

As always, these things in life make me think about some life lessons.  Sometimes in life, we get small irritants in life that just rub us the wrong way.  At that point, we have the choice of either doing something to get rid of the aggravation or we can ignore it util it causes an even bigger problem.   Often when we do something to get rid of the thing that is aggravating us, we end up with our own pearls to share with the world.  Take for example, Patience.  I was always warned as a child to not pray for patience because God would grant it in a way that I would not like.  Well, I did pray for patience and God gave me Morgan.  I love this child to death, she is truly a good kid, but she does push my buttons very efficiently.  We are working on me being more patient with her and others, and one day that "pearl" is going to be amazing.

Don't let those small things in life get under your skin, choose to figure out a way to get rid of it.  That way you can have your oyster, and eat it too!