{"id":467,"date":"2016-09-16T15:56:15","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T21:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.melaniebnewman.com\/staging\/9944\/?p=467"},"modified":"2022-04-18T16:47:42","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T22:47:42","slug":"message-pickle-jar-focusing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.melaniebnewman.com\/staging\/9944\/message-pickle-jar-focusing\/","title":{"rendered":"The message from the pickle jar: What are you focusing on?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My family loves pickles! So much so that we buy them by the gallon!<\/p>\n<p>My daughter was preparing her lunch for school the other day when I heard from out in the mudroom (we have an extra fridge out there) a strangled cry of, \u201cMommmmm!\u201d As I rushed out to see what was wrong I saw my daughter standing in the midst of a gallon\u2019s worth of pickles and broken glass!<\/p>\n<p>Now I admit, I will not be winning any, \u201cMother of the Year\u201d award, because <strong>my focus <\/strong>first went to the pickle juice flowing under the refrigerator, under the nearby cabinets and towards a college daughter\u2019s fabric suitcase. It wasn\u2019t until I asked her why she wasn\u2019t moving out of the mess and she meekly replied, \u201cMom, there\u2019s glass,\u201d that <strong>my attention abruptly shifted<\/strong> and my focus went to my daughter and that she could very well be hurt!<\/p>\n<p>Luckily I had a bag of rags nearby and dumped them on the mess to stop the flow and was able to <strong>focus on my daughter<\/strong> and help her out. Did I mention, she was barefoot?!<\/p>\n<p><strong>My attention <\/strong>then went to seeing to the welfare of my daughter. She had a sliced toe and a shard of glass in her heel. I got her doctored up and on her way to school, a little late but no worse for wear.<\/p>\n<p>As I was figuring out the best way to clean up that mess, all of a sudden <strong>my focus shifted <\/strong>once again, to one of <strong>immense gratitude<\/strong>! How did that huge jar of pickles not land on her bare foot?! Did you know a gallon jar of pickles weighs 12 pounds! Can you imagine the injury and damage that could have resulted from the weight, plus the huge and small jagged pieces of glass, if it had landed on her foot?!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suddenly, the inconvenience became a time of gratitude and appreciation!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How often do we focus on the part of our life experience that is insignificant and unimportant? Sure, the glass, the pickle juice and smell may be difficult to clean up but more importantly my daughter was protected from what could have been a serious injury!<\/p>\n<p>After the initial crisis passed, I could then easily <strong>focus on the miracle at hand<\/strong>. Too many times before, I would focus on the difficulty I was experiencing and completely miss the blessings to be found in the situation.<\/p>\n<p>I invite you to become more aware of the blessings to be found in your experiences. They are there! And once you start paying attention you will begin noticing so many blessings and be amazed at the goodness that surrounds you!<\/p>\n<p>Sending you blessings and love,<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-462\" src=\"https:\/\/www.melaniebnewman.com\/staging\/9944\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/signature.png\" alt=\"signature\" width=\"223\" height=\"73\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My family loves pickles! So much so that we buy them by the gallon! My daughter was preparing her lunch for school the other day when I heard from out in the mudroom (we have an extra fridge out there)&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.melaniebnewman.com\/staging\/9944\/message-pickle-jar-focusing\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-emotional","8":"category-mental","9":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The message from the pickle jar: What are you focusing on? - Melanie B Newman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.melaniebnewman.com\/staging\/9944\/message-pickle-jar-focusing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The message from the pickle jar: What are you focusing on? - Melanie B Newman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My family loves pickles! 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