A Lesson From Swedish Fish

Yesterday my daughter, Mariah, made me the best birthday dinner. She went to a lot of trouble and made all my favorite things. Kirsha and Meleah helped in the preparation and everyone (within driving distance!) gathered at Mariah's house. There were twenty four of us and we had a wonderful evening together.

I knew we would be gathering and so I saved everyone's Valentine's for the party and after dinner I gave them out. My four-year-old grandson, George, got one of the boxes of Swedish Fish and was very excited, but a few minutes later he was having a terrible tantrum. I went in to see what was the matter and his mother was just getting him calmed down enough to tell her. Between great sobs we finally heard, "Adults aren't supposed to eat the fish." Sitting on the couch was the culprit, his father who had innocently eaten ONE of the Swedish Fish.

I couldn't help but chuckle, but I wasn't laughing at George or his father or Swedish Fish. Instead I was thinking about all the times I've brought that kind of tantrum-inspired pain upon myself because I didn't think what happened should have happened.

When watching a child have a tantrum it is so easy to identify how absurd it all is. But we as adults do the same thing. We have our own tantrums and cause ourselves so much pain for the most inconsequential things even though we are old enough to know better. I'm going to store this memory up and remind myself often that most of the things I get upset about don't really matter at all! But most important, I'm going to remember what George taught me;

"Adults aren't supposed to eat the fish (make that Should Sharks!)."