CFB HALIFAX
Padre’s Corner: Life does not need to be perfect to be good
By Padre Capt Troy Dennis,
Senior Base Chaplain, CFB Halifax
As I left the house one morning not long ago, I looked up and noticed a particularly clear sky. I turned slowly to take in the beauty of all the blue surrounding me. It was going to be a good day!
I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen a completely blue sky. “Surely there must be a cloud somewhere,” I thought, as I scanned the sky again. To the south there was a bank of clouds, hardly noticeable because they were low on the horizon.
Immediately I was disappointed because that little bit of grey seemed to take away from the grandness of the big blue sky. Nothing had changed except my mood. The sky was still beautiful, but now I focused on the cloud. I shouldn’t have looked so hard.
It made me think of how we tend to focus on the negative so much more easily than the positive. A hundred things go right, but one goes wrong, and that’s where our thoughts settle. We tend not to ponder the good things in our lives, even when they are many. Rather, our thoughts creep toward the crappiness of the few, little things. “I shouldn’t have looked so hard,” seems to fit here.
Amazingly, I can think of so many people I have known over the years who were content and happy despite the problems they faced in life. We might judge their circumstances to be pretty miserable because of hardship or health, but they choose not to see it that way. A little bit of blue sky is enough for them.
It reminds me that life does not have to be perfect to be good. We do not need to look so hard to find the dark side of things. The clouds will find us sure enough. Rather, there is still joy and contentment to be found without perfection.
Chaplains are available in Halifax to listen no matter the issue. Contact your unit chaplain, or call the 24/7 Duty Chaplain at 902-427-7788.
