What Can't We See?

These are wild mushrooms growing out of a fallen tree in Hawaii.

Aren't they beautiful?

While we were in Hawaii we took a great hike to a 4 thousand foot waterfall.
In order however, to get to the waterfall, we had to hike through the Bamboo forest.

I am a deep sensory type individual in case you haven't noticed. Nothing glides through me easily. I wish some days it did --- but it just doesn't. Often times I count this a great blessing! Some days though, it feels like a curse!

I think somewhere in me there's a button turned all the way up and it's stuck in that full on position. Once in a while I'd just like to turn it down to low. I have had many times in my life when I've cried great tears with a wish "I just want to know what it feels like to feel normal and not completely intense all the time!"

Well, it just ain't gonna happen. I'm intense and growing more so everyday. See that's what happens to you when you age. You just grow to be more of what ever it was you were when you were young. I'm doomed! Can I get anymore intense? Therefore, I am a passionate person when it comes to living life.

So now that I've given you a short synopsis of how everything impacts me, I draw your attention back to the mushrooms.

It was towards the end of our journey. We'd been hiking a long time, I was tired and hot, my feet were aching, and I was nearly all spent. Keep in mind I'd already done my 4 mile walk/run at 5 A.M., so I was wilting with every step. That's when I saw Kelson stop and bend over this fallen mossy tree. He looked strange stooped over it with his face pressed as low to the ground as possible. I stopped to investigate.
"What are you doing Goose?" I queried.
That's when I saw them, the mushrooms . . . they were everywhere! They looked like rainbows springing out of every tree. I couldn't get over it. How had I missed them? Kelson proceeded to tell me he had seen them throughout our entire hike. He said "I just wanted to get a picture of some before I leave. Mushrooms everywhere and I hadn't seen a single one of them. What in the world had I been looking at?

So remember my intensity levels and now this thought just overwhelmed me, "An entire three mile hike and I hadn't seen a single mushroom!" This got me to thinking about what else there is in life that I don't see, especially in my relationships with people. What judgments do I make? What verdicts do I drum up? What conclusions do I draw upon at a whim without seeing maybe something that was there all along that I should have seen? What don't I see in those I deal with daily? Better yet, what don't I see in me that prevents me from seeing what there is to see in others that I ought to see and maybe don't? And even more, how does my not seeing affect my judgments?

Humans are basically self-centered. We tend to see everything in life in regards to our own personal perspectives. The mushrooms though and having them right there at my feet throughout an entire hike and not seeing a single one surrounding me really made me think about how we sum up and draw our opinions and conclusions about each other, and how often we are dead wrong because of all that we do not see!


Tonight I'm headed to bed. It's been a long week. I've had some powerful experiences this week with people who are quick to size me up, I feel it, their judgments and it hurts. I know we all have these experiences; times in our lives when people place judgments upon us without truly knowing. But the mushroom theory has made me contemplate these experiences differently. Tonight perhaps I'm not so quick to judge back. Maybe it's my perspectives that need a little altering. And so today I'm going to try harder to always look for the rainbow in people, you know, give people the benefit of the doubt, gravitate to the positive side instead of the negative.

I was reading in my scriptures how it is simply not for us to judge each other. The lord has reserved that right for Himself, because only He knows our hearts and understands the varying circumstances and complexities of our lives. How true that is.

I also read a great thing by President Benson on pride. I'm a person who worries too much about what other people think of me. After reading about pride, I realized I have some work to do in that arena! There is only one person's opinion who we ought to worry about. We ought to worry about what God thinks of us. His opinion should be the only one that matters!

I will forever be grateful for Kelson and what he showed me that day on the mountain. I had the opportunity to see so much more than a mushroom and that has made a difference in me.

In closing I found a couple of quotes I really liked. Hope you like them too.

I have been driven many times upon my knees
by the overwhelming conviction
that I had no where else to go.
-Abraham Lincoln

Adversity and Inner Strength
Without the difficulty of being hemmed in,
The tree in the forest would not be forced
To marshal its power to grow toward the light.
It must truly bring forth all its inner strength
To spread its branches.
If it becomes grand,
It is in part because of its suffering.
Thus the times of adversity can be crucial
To the development of one's inner personality.
-from 365 Tao by Deng Ming-Dao

To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.
-David O McKay

PS. I'm back in the saddle Nelda :) Thanks for following the spirit, for noticing, and for sending me your love! You and Goose, you just know how to see what others can't! You are the greatest person :) and I love ya for it!