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| SHADOWS OF OPPORTUNITY A small boy was sitting on the kitchen floor coloring with his crayons while his mother washed dishes at the sink. Suddenly, a beam of sunlight streamed in through the window behind the boy, casting a fascinating shadow of himself upon the floor. Excited to discover the wonders of this new playmate, the boy quickly stood to his feet. Much to his amazement, the shadow stood up too ! Experimenting, the boy clapped, kicked,jumped up and down, twirled and flapped his arms. Everything the boy did, the shadow immediately imitated. Giggling, the boy eventually reached out to grab hold of the shadow. No matter how hard he tried, he could never quite catch it. Instead of giving up in frustration, the boy tried many different methods of obtaining his shadow. He finally succeeded by placing blank drawing paper on the floor and tracing around his shadow in crayon. How many times have we been presented a shadow of new opportunity only to end up completely ignoring it or giving up because it was too hard to obtain? Opportunities, much like shadows, are everywhere and can be found in ordinary situations, thoughts, ideas, beliefs and relationships. All we have to do is train ourselves to recognize these new life opportunities when they appear. The next time you find a shadow of opportunity being cast in your direction, remember to quickly capture it within your own creative crayon lines before it has any chance of darting behind a cloud of doubt and quietly fading away. 2001 - Tamela Meredith Partridge |