trash or treasure

You know you are getting more relaxed as a parent when you don't absolutely fall apart that your toddler is playing in the trash. Since returning to Honduras Tikvah seems to have a fascination with our kitchen trash can. It has a rolling lid and is right at eye-level. When she passes by she likes to inspect what's in there-or throw something in. Her siblings taught her the throwing in part, taking advantage of her curiousity they hand her their trash and she obediently runs to the can and comes back like a puppy looking for something else to toss. Of course, this can lead to silverware, toys and missing school papers that disappear into that gray oblivion...and usually they ask Mom to dive in and recover the missing item. Sometimes as I take the trash out, I'll notice a suspicious rattle and have to seek out it's source. I've recovered forks, plastic plates, dollhouse pieces...

Of course yesterday you would have thought I hadn't fed the child because as I cleaned the kitchen I had to keep taking away her munchies. First it was an ancient PB&J from someone's lunchbox, then the crust of cinnamon toast from breakfast, the remnants of a bag of chips, and apple core....it's when she comes chewing gum that it's really gross (she's not allowed any gum because she doesn't seem to spit it out, it just disappears). "Now just where, exactly, did you get that?" She's all smiles but no indication of said gum's origin.

My kids teach me so much about myself. I am quite similar to my toddler. Often I am quite content to scour the garbage when God's got the good stuff freely available. Somehow that garbage can look so attractive and easy to aquire. Or I throw out the useful life lessons in a rush to move on to more important things. I remember in college there were a group of guys who liked to go "dumpster diving." In Chicago, you could find all sorts of useful things that people could no longer be bothered with. They enjoyed finding good sources and scouring them on a regular basis. (This did cause a problem when one girl discovered that her boyfriend's beautiful boquets where flower-shop rejects, not hard earned paid-for-with- cash posies.) Sometimes it's just a matter of adjusting your perspective on things. When I look at my life with eternity's eyes am I focusing on the trash or the treasure?