
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
Henry David Thoreau
The Black Dot
One day, a professor walked into the classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the exam to begin.
The professor passed out the exams with the text facing down as usual. Once he handed them all out he asked the students to turn over the papers.
To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions – just a black dot in the center of the sheet of paper. The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s faces, told them the following:
“I want you to write about what you see there.” The students, confused, went about completing the inexplicable task.
At the end of the class, the professor took the exams and began reading each one of them out loud in front of all the students. All of them, with no exception began defining the black dot, trying to explain its position in the center of the sheet.
After all of them had been read, the classroom was silent and the professor started to explain.
“I’m not going to grade you on this, but I wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the white part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot and the same happens in our lives.”
Our life is like a white piece of paper, something to observe and enjoy, but we always focus on the dark spots. Life is a true gift, overflowing with reasons to celebrate – nature renewing itself every day, the friends around us, the job that provides our livelihood, the miracles we see every day.
However, we insist on focusing on the dark spot – the health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the complicated relationship with a family member, the disappointment with a friend. We complain, we worry, we fear the future.
Yet, if you take time to observe, the dark spots are very small when compared to everything we have in our lives, but they are the ones that pollute our minds. Take your eyes away from the black dots on your life. Enjoy each one of your blessings and each moment that life gives you. Notice the miracles that abound. Look for what is working and say “Thank you!”
Celebrate and be happy and live the day filled with love and gratitude.
Thank you to my good friend Jack Dexter for sharing this story with us.
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