I’m a great fan of the cupcake.
I’m an even greater fan of finding wisdom in unexpected places.
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Several years ago, while chatting with a scout leader at a national park, I was lucky enough to find exactly that… the wisdom, not the cupcake.
We were talking about the awful weather we were having & I asked if the scouts were still going to camp out. He told me that his troop had a saying that summed up those kinds of situations: “Suck it up, Cupcake!” The scouts would just have to deal with it – because it was for their own good.
He told me a story about a group vacation he had been on with a few other families. When they all arrived at the beach resort, they were cautioned about the rip tide that was making swimming unsafe that day. One of the fathers became furious – he declared he hadn’t come all that way to look at a rip tide and immediately packed his family back into his van and sped off. If it wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t going to deal with it.
It was at this point that the scout leader (aka my Yoda-like inspirer) imparted this great wisdom that I often think about till this day: “Things in life aren’t going to be perfect… You’re never going to have a perfect job, or a perfect house, or a perfect relationship. You need to work at things and make your own happiness. What kind of example would I be setting for my scouts if we just gave up anytime things got a little rough? So I say Suck it up, Cupcake! ”
I was struck by this wisdom of healthy acceptance & perseverance. How often do I allow an entire situation to go sour just because it isn’t “perfect”? What minutia do I succumb to that ruins what should be fun or good or rewarding? Sadly, this happens much more than it should… But I’m working on it.
As for cupcakes – well, I must inform you that one cupcake was harmed in the making of this blog post… It might not have been the perfect cupcake, but it was still good – and that was good enough.
Who knew wisdom could taste so sweet?
Out of the Poppies 