WHAT'S INSIDE

This morning I decided a toasted blueberry bagel with cream cheese would make a great breakfast.  While waiting for the toaster I spied the bowl of oranges I have been enjoying this week and added one of those to the menu also, starting to peel it (since the toaster wasn't quite finished).

I interrupted the peeling to spread the cream cheese  - at the squealing beep signaling the bagel had popped up. I was savoring the smell and quite anticipating the juicy sweetness of that orange.

When I again picked up the orange to finish peeling it, the peel seemed glued on. Trying to pry it off began to tear the sections - and I like how 'not messy' sections of oranges are - so I turned it over thinking I could pull the skin off without more damage by coming at it from another direction.

I readily slid my thumb under the peel into ... WHAT??? I did a double take - I have never seen such a thing before.  The orange looked normal from the outside but when I examined it the 'navel' had traces of black that may have alerted me to the problem.

What's inside really is what counts!

There are many old sayings, that are part of the upbringing I had, that all mean this very thing.  I can look or act pretty or nice but what is in my heart is what matters.

I was also taught to fill my time and my life with good uplifting things that give light to the mind and body and hearten myself and others - taught so well and thoroughly that if I spend time on anything that does not fit those clear descriptions the echoes in my consciousness will not subside until I change my actions or attitudes.

As a young teen I was wisely counseled to "keep my mind clean and my lips sweet - to never allow vulgar, obscene, or profane language to enter my mind nor pass from my lips ... [because these things] are tools [of those seeking misery] being used ... to demoralize and tear down the character of those striving for [happiness]."

I never particularly thought of things that are vulgar, obscene or profane or defined them to myself until I was much older.  Today I ponder what can be inside containers that appear attractive.

I intend to avoid anything and everything that will bring the inside of this orange, or anything like it to mind.  As much as possible I will just avoid such things.  When I encounter them I resolve to treat them the way I treated this orange - throw it out, dispose of it, get rid of it AND be very careful to put safeguards in place that will help me to not touch them, hear them, or look at them again.

I do not want to put my thumb into such nastiness much less eat it or take any part of it into my body.  Surely I do not want similar nastiness in my mind and I don't think you do either.

What is inside, inside our hearts and minds - the very desires and thoughts and feelings we have - really is what counts.