MountainWings       A MountainWings Moment
#1145              Wings Over The Mountains of Life



Better Than A Rolls
================

I spent four hours one night cleaning my wife's van.  It was 
spotless and fragranced with powdered honeysuckle.  That's what 
the car fragrance smelled like that I used.

As we were driving away the next day for a family outing, I 
looked in the back seat.  The four-year-old was strapped in.  
The two-year-old was comfortably seated in his child seat.  
My wife was driving.

It was a MountainWings Moment.

MountainWings Moments occur whenever life gives us the 
opportunity to take an otherwise mundane or even negative 
situation, and rise to the mountaintop.

I inhaled deeply the soft honeysuckle.  It was mixed with the 
scent of the hair conditioner of the two-year-old.  The kids 
were watching a video.

I was openly pleased with the cleaning job that I had done.  
Every scrap, smudge, and drop of unidentifiable kid's stuff was 
gone.

"This van is great," I said.

"It's not a Rolls," my wife replied.

"No," I answered, "It's better than a Rolls Royce."

"A Rolls doesn't ride this smooth."  

I have learned to find and appreciate MountainWings Moments.

We have a four-year-old Plymouth Voyager Van.  
I have ridden in a Rolls Royce, 
it wasn't a new Rolls but I wasn't impressed for the money.  

A Rolls doesn't have the headroom of the van.  
A Rolls doesn't have a TV.  
A Rolls doesn't have a VCR.  
A Rolls can't seat seven people or let you listen to three sound 
systems at one time.  
In a Rolls you can't recline the seat into a bed.  

I went down the list of all of the advantages of our van over a 
Rolls.

"You have a point," my wife said.

So often, the thing that you have, is so much better than what 
is on the other side of the fence.  

You just don't realize it.

You have to get on the mountain to see it.  

You need A MountainWings Moment.

A strange thing happened after that day.

Neatness of organization is not my wife's strength.  

The van is usually piled with her papers, kid's toys, and all of 
the accessories that go along with kids.

I got in the van a week later.

I was shocked.  It was absolutely clean.

Two weeks later.

Still spotlessly clean.

I rode with my wife yesterday (a month later), 
I had a fruit bar with me.  I unwrapped it and laid the wrapper 
on the spotless floor behind me.

"Don't leave that wrapper on the floor," she said as she eyed 
the wrapper with an extreme look of disdain.

A month ago, you would not have been able to find the wrapper if 
you laid it on the floor, and the van would have qualified as 
Oscar's vehicle on The Odd Couple, (he was the junky one).  

Today, it was like Felix's, (the neat one).

What in the world had happened?

I was both proud and amazed.

I asked, "What caused the change from junk mobile to showroom 
condition?"

"If I wouldn't junk up a Rolls, then why should I junk up 
something better than a Rolls?" 

Same Van – Different Appreciation

How we treat something depends so much on how we view and 
value it.

When you stop to think about it, you have a lot of things in 
your world far more valuable than a Rolls Royce.  The eyes you 
use for reading this, are two of those many things.

Maybe there are some people and some things that you need to 
put polish on, lavish sweet smelling things on, and remove the 
junk from.

Maybe, just maybe, you're junking up something better than a 
Rolls Royce.


A MountainWings Original

Thank you for inviting MountainWings in your mailbox.  
See you tomorrow.