PLAYING POSSUM

After getting to bed about 1:00am this morning, I was wide awake at 5:30a.m. I told my wife I would try and sleep late so she could sleep without getting bothered, but I couldn’t stay in bed. So about 6:30, I showered and dressed and was ready to work on my Challenge. Getting up early is in my blood, but staying up late is not typical. I am usually asleep by 9:30pm. The Challenge has my blood flowing again.

Anyway, I had a project to complete, and I needed to get it done. I do glass etching and rock carving. The business is Lone Star Engraving. I sandblast designs on shower doors, mirrors, rocks, etc. I had a customer who wanted his shower door designed with a lighthouse and I wanted to get it to him this weekend.

As I was headed out to my shop about 6:45am, I looked in the trash can and saw an opossum in the bottom of the trash can. The plastic trash can stands about 3 ½ feet high, and about two feet in diameter. Needless to say I was quite startled.

The possum didn’t move an inch. It looked like he may have jumped from a tree close to the trash can to get in, and as smooth and hard as the plastic was on the inside, it looks like the poor creature was stuck in there. How long, who knows. But possums being nocturnal creatures and it had been daylight for an hour or so, I assume he had been in there for a while.

To facilitate the possums return to its family, I tipped the can over so he could walk on out and go home. To my amazement, the possum just stayed there. Frozen.

It made me think, did the possum not hurriedly scamper out possibly because it tried all night and couldn’t and now was resigned to being stuck?

As I thought about why the possum didn’t run off I tried to relate it’s situation to many that we face as individuals. Do we stay stuck in a place, a rut, because we have tried many times before to get out but we didn’t? An even when the opportunities have presented themselves, did we not take them because we might have been comfortable in the rut, and the road wasn’t as bumpy? Or maybe we didn’t have the confidence to just step out and Challenge ourselves.
Whatever reason, sometimes we are trapped, sometime trapped and don’t even know it. Sometimes situations present themselves and we don’t pursue them because we are bound by our habits, negative thoughts, and acceptance of the status quo. Most all of us can use a Challenge. I have created my own.

As for the possum, I ended up giving the little thing a little help. I ended up tipping the can upside down forcing the possum out and it ran back off into the shrubs. After a little research on possums at www.opossum.org/facts.htm I realized that maybe the possum was just ‘playing possum’, something they do when they are scared.

The shower door turned out excellent, and if I can get my pictures downloaded I will share them with you.

Two books I’ve read which have helped me shape my life and be more positive are Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne Dyer. If you are looking for a charge in your life which will make a positive change, read them.

Until my next entry, pursue your dreams!

Dave