The Magic Geranium

05 Dec 2011 1 Comment

by pinkkudzu in Uncategorized Tags: disaster, fans, geranium, lady, magic, painting, wallpaper

I read this story in one of those children’s magazines when I was young. I read it at least repeatedly because there just wasn’t that many books in our house. I loved the story of a family with a problem. There home was the disgrace of the neighborhood. Shutters were falling, filth filled every room, and the yard looked like a junkyard. The neighbors wanted to call the law on the family. An elder lady asked if she could try something first. The skeptical neighbors decided to give her a try.
The woman approached the front door with the gift of a geranium from her garden. The neighbors sneaked peaks from windows and around corners to get a glimpse into what this eccentric old woman’s solution might be. She knocked sharply on the door. With much rearranging and shuffling inside, the door creaked open. The lady presented her gift to the sloppy homeowners explaining that it was a magic geranium. “What does it do?” She answered with a tinkle in her eye, “Watch and see!”
The geranium was placed on the dining room table. As the homeowners kept watch for magic, they noticed how the piles of junk on the table took away from the beauty of the plant. So they cleaned off the table, which made the room look shabby. Paint was the solution they decided. The newly painted dining room made the living room look horrible, so more painting had to be done, and cleaning. Ah, the family sat down to relax and enjoy the living room! But ugh, the beautiful dining and living room made the kitchen unbearable. Back to work! Next the bathrooms were tackled and that left the bedrooms looking awful! So on to cleaning and painting them. Now the whole house was just like new! The geranium looked beautiful in such clean and gorgeous surroundings… until they stepped out onto the porch. The porch and yard were a mess compared to the house. To work the homeowners went! The neighbors were amazed and asked the elderly lady what she’d done to inspire such work. She explained about the magic geranium!
We had a magic geranium at our house in the form of a water leak. One project turned into another one and another one. Now, it’s like our whole house is brand new… and the outside is looking a little shabby. We didn’t intend to paint the entire house but to paint one room, the next one had to be painted. And painting the living room meant the foyer had to be painted, which meant wallpaper had to come down. New ceilings fans weren’t on the schedule, but while the 16-foot ladder was in the house, it was logically to install new ones. And if we changed to an oiled bronze fans, we needed to change door hardware to match.
Our magic geranium has left us exhausted and running behind in getting ready for Christmas. But I’ll take any magic I can get!
I guess the point is that we can take anything in our life and look at it either as a magic geranium that leads to positive change or we can look upon it as a disaster. A disaster driven life is miserable, overwhelming, and depressing. A magic geranium sort of life is exciting, always looking for something good to come alone is fun. It’s an intentional choice we make: geranium or disaster? Which will it be?

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