There was a time when I played racquetball. I was very good at it. At least I thought I was very good at it until I played the state racquetball champion. His name was Carlos. I was practicing in a racquetball court hoping someone would show up and want to play and I could strut my stuff. Well, Carlos showed up and asked if I was looking for a game. Carlos let me serve first. It wasn’t long before Carlos won the serve and I never saw the serve again. Before the second game began Carlos turned to me and said, “Ray, do you mind if I play left handed?” I wasn’t offered a piece of humble pie. I was offered the whole pie. What could I say, he was the champ. The results were pretty much the same. We played one more game. He continued to play left handed. I had a good workout and I came home with a story. The lopsided loss I took was easy to take. Carlos wasn’t arrogant. He just wanted to get a workout in. I happened to be his workout. The moral of the story? Sometimes when you think you’re pretty good, someone shows up to teach you a lesson. My teacher showed up.
teacher
Inspiring Quote for Today ~ Experience is Our Teacher
What you have experienced,
no power on earth can take from you.
Today’s Poem ~ The Tables Turned
The Tables Turned
William Wordsworth
Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you’ll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?
The sun above the mountain’s head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.
Books! ’tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There’s more of wisdom in it.
And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.
She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless–
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:–
We murder to dissect.
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.
