BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE

Hello! Hope your day is fine. You know, one day I came across a cartoon series entitled “Moomin.” The story revolved around a family of white hippos, a very little old lady and a scarecrow. The other characters there were animals dressed as humans. All of them live like humans, too . . . with houses, backyards, parks, etc.

Moomin was the kid boy in the family. One day, he helped his father look for a camera. He would be joining a photo contest. They searched and searched here and there. Until the mother hippo asked what they were looking for. To the father’s surprise, she showed them the fan blower where the accordion type part of the camera was attached! Hahaha!

He screwed it on the box body of the camera. When he peeped, oh no, where was the lens? Moomin took something from his room and there in his hand was a handmade magnifying glass with the camera lens as the glass. Hehehe! The tripod was with Moomin, too. Wow! This cartoon is an old type. You know why? The camera was the big box type with the camera man peeping on it with a black cloth covering his head and the camera. On one of his hand was the flash.

Hehehe , , , and the black cloth . . . oh, boy, the mom hippo painted it with hearts all over and sew a lace on its edges. She used it as a table cloth. Well now that all was set, they all went to shoot pictures of nature.

For the last shot, it was for the family and the old lady, with the flowery garden on the background. Perfect! But then, the flash was so bright that when the pictures were developed they looked like white statues.

Guess what? This last picture, it won the first price. It was on the newspaper. The whole family was so happy, except for father . . . why? Because, he knew there was a mistake in the picture. Well, his prize was a 10-year supply of the newspaper.

Then artists all over their country came to their place looking for the statues in the picture. There was a painting contest and they wanted to use them as subject. They were disappointed to find out that these statues didn’t exist. They painted nature instead.

The father hippo was encouraged to try to paint and join the contest. He got an easel, paint brushes, paint and canvass. He started painting. To his disappointment, he didn’t finish his painting. He threw the mixing plate to the drawing and it got stuck on it. He left his house to unwind.

His wife saw this and removed the mixing plate. The colors were spread on the drawing. She didn’t want the efforts of her husband to go to waste so she enlisted it to the contest . . . blessed hippo father, he won first place!

Moomin fetch him and the award was given to him. Again, his family was happy except for him. He gave away the prize. He thought he didn’t deserve it. The painting was a mistake. What a pity . . .

Sometimes we are like the father hippo . . . we perceive things differently. We are so focused with what we want to achieve that we do not appreciate the good things coming our way.

Gratefulness is overcome by sulkiness. Sad . . .

There are moments blessings come to us in disguise, like what happened to him . . . and as he did, we take them for granted. My goodness! He won first prize for the two consecutive contests. The so called mistakes? I wonder. Maybe they were God’s helping hand because if it weren’t for them, his entries would not be winning pieces. Possible, wasn’t it?

But the thing is, he wanted to rely on his own ability and not on Divine Providence. But this cost him a price . . . he never enjoyed the blessings brought by them. He never experienced the joy of a grateful heart, up to the end of the story, he never did.

Sounds familiar? Yap! We hear stories like these, know people like this . . . or sometimes, we, ourselves, are like this.

OOOOPS, STOP! Do you have any disguised blessings right now? Try to look closer, my friend. It’s not too late to be grateful, not too late to enjoy them . . . Don’t let each blessing just pass by in your life without you recognizing them and being thankful for them. Each will only pass once . . . Capture the moment. Enjoy them while you can.

A Grateful-Filled Day!

-luisadelacruz