The Ball Drop
“Mine is the green ball! Watch it fall!” says one child to the next. The ball drop at the Science Center is the first attraction that all of our children flock to with every visit. The clanging and clanking holds such great appeal for all ages and trying to keep track of “your ball” is a challenge through this convoluted maze of steel track. It moves so quickly through the twists, turns, drops and climbs all the time with gravity pushing it through the maze endlessly and just when it has reached its completion the ball is elevated to the top of the maze to descend once more.
Sound familiar to you? Is it similar to your life right now? All that steel track twisted, turned, ascending, and descending the maze now indistinguishable to us anymore. The gravity of life just pushing us on a continuous route that is all too familiar and just when we feel like we have escaped the enclosed maze with a raise, a new job, a child completing school or a major accomplishment in our lives we realize we are elevated to the top to descend the maze once more.
The maze doesn’t have to serve as a trap that pushes us forward, left and right. Reality is our own perception. If we perceive the maze to be a trap we will feel the weight of the gravity controlling our every move daily. However, if we perceive the maze to be a journey to learn and grow from daily we will be able to look beyond the track and see people, experience life and love fully. Yes, the gravity of our very lives pushes us through that maze but it doesn’t completely dictate the way we must live. We must live within the culture we have chosen but our thoughts and actions are not limited to a one way path. We can slow the ball down a bit and be a part of the twist and turns. We can breathe in the wind that our trip produces. We can learn to love others on the journey with us and we can grow to be a better person because of the descents. We are not trapped. We are given the opportunity to journey through this life and make it what we desire it to be instead of feeling the gravity grab hold of the push ride it, live it, love with the speed of every drop and grow with every climb.
