#1197  Bubbles
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I stood on my grandmother's front porch with my son.
He had a bottle of bubbles. You know the type, it's 
basically soapy water with a plastic loop on each end. 
You dip the loop in the bottle, pull it out, and blow it to 
make bubbles.

My son understood the principle, but was vainly trying to 
blow bubbles. He would dip and dip and blow and blow, but 
alas, no bubbles.

He handed me the bottle and loop and asked me, "daddy can 
you make bubbles?" I hadn't blown bubbles in years. I am 
a chemist by education, fairly well-trained in surfactant 
technology. I have formulated several shampoos, so I 
understand surface tension and related foaming 
characteristics of surfactants. Surfactant is just a big 
fancy word for a soap or detergent.

All that knowledge isn't worth a hoot when trying to blow 
bubbles from a loop filled with soapy water. I was having 
no more success than my son. I would dip and puff, no 
bubbles, the soapy film on the loop would just pop without 
releasing any bubbles.

After several futile attempts, I changed tactics. Instead 
of puffing on the loop of soapy water I gently breathed on 
it. My son squealed with delight as a big beautiful bubble 
emerged and floated away.

He grabbed the loop, dipped and blew. No bubbles.

I explained to him, "son you can't blow hard, you must ever 
so gently breathe on the loop to make bubbles." He 
restrained his ardent desire to make big bubbles by blowing 
hard and followed my advice.

Big bubbles.

It was a MountainWings Moment as I saw another principle of 
life floating away in the bubbles.

There are some things that you can get with brute force but 
there are other things that only come with the gentleness 
of a soft breath. Too often, we try to force love, or real 
respect. It won't come. It just pops before the bubble 
can ever form because we try to put too much force on it.

The closer something is to higher spirit, the more it is 
like bubbles; it can't be forced and is more often found in 
the soft things of life.

You have a bottle of bubbles and you have been puffing 
trying to get them out.

Blow beautiful bubbles, breathe easy. 


A MountainWings Original


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