Our life lessons are here and gone each day, but sometimes they hit pay dirt and register deeper in our consciousness. I saw one of those snippets come to life recently at the Greatest Arabian Horse Show, a competition at a horse arena near Phoenix, Arizona. It too, was a snapshot that came and went quickly, but reminded me that whether we are the student or the teacher, we all still feeling the oats of life's learning curve.

It was not long after I began the first leg of a get-a-way to Arizona that my suitcase took control.  My own luggage made it clear that if we were going to dance, it would be the one leading, and I would be the one to follow. If my suitcase was meant to be more coordinated than I was, Ginger Rogers would have paired with one a long time ago, and ditched Fred Astaire. Grab the handle, and step aside Security. 

When my parents bought out first house, they loved the big back yard, the friendly neighborhood and the proximity to a good school. My brother and I, on the other hand, considered the sunken living room not only the best selling point, but a secret passage to a subterranean culture, and a shelter from an impending global disaster: The Greenhouse Effect. 

If bears had slippers they might never come out of hibernation. Why? Because slippers automatically turn off the alarm clocks inside us. Our circadian rhythms slow when we put on our house shoes, and deep down in our soles, our feet let out a long sigh when are slippers come to rest near us. Therapy dogs beware: in the future you will all be replaced with a good pair of slippers.

We all are products of those voices who took a chance on us, those that saw something bright in our future and taught us what becoming better looked like. In this short story in a week celebrating Martin Luther King’s Jr.’s birthday, the author replays the role of one encourager whose skills were simple, but whose hands were big. To have a dream, one must first be willing to use what we are given.

If you had an art teacher when you were a kid that didn't like your creations, you might be inspired after you read this to get out the old paint set and pick up where you left off. Be careful though! Lurking within every creative process, every art work, is a ravaging imagination, full of quirks and...duh-dum....a large side order of mystery!