You just never know who is going to show up at the party, now do you?  Oh sure….. you think you do.  But DO YOU?

Take this for example.  We decided to put out a Deer Trough at the beginning of this nearly-past Winter.  We filled it with whole corn, every day.  And the deer came.   They ate.  They were happy.  Heck, WE were happy.

We would smile and wave at them, and they would raise a hoof back.  Like a long-distance “Hoof Bump.”  Ssss’all Good Baby.

But wait.  What is happening here?  The next thing you know, every Tom, Dick, and Harry decides they can come to the Banquet too.  Of course we had birds of all designs.  But raccoons, possum, chipmunks, squirrels… you name it… we had it.

When it is colder than a well-digger’s booty… well… I guess everybody needs a good frozen corn meal.

Yes.  We had some guests we didn’t really intend on having.  In fact… the party was out of control.

But this is just yet another example of the bigger picture, if you ask me.

In life, in general, we simply can’t control everything.  A lot of times… we can’t control most things.

Our intentions may be good and we may have constructed a well-mapped out plan.  But much to our dismay, at times, things just don’t “pan out” the way we thought they would.

Your daughter marries that guy that’s been divorced twice, and has five kids from another marriage.  Your cat pees on your dinner guest’s shoes…. right during the main course.   You get sick the night before  you go on vacation.   The chocolate soufle’ just collapsed in the over.

We may have planned…. even prepared…. for these things to go much differently,  Yet.  When it comes right down to it… life’s events unfold and evolve however they dang well please.

One little tickity tock at a time.
So what do we do?

Well, in the case of our trough, we could have simply quit putting corn out there.  That would have stopped the raccoons, and the possum, and the squirrels alright.  But it would have stopped the deer too.  And that was our original purpose and intention.  Our good measure would have been curtailed.

No… I don’t think we should ever lose sight of what is in our good hearts to begin with. We just have to accept that the goodness  in our hearts still is very much there…. it is just taking form in some other way.    Maybe what is getting in the way… is what is in our heads.

All of this may sound a bit corny…  but… if you ever want to talk more about any of this…. I will certainly lend you an ear.

The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.  —  John Burroughs