Flamingo.

The mist blows from across the lake. The sun's rays sparkling each particle as though the dust of diamonds has been scattered in the air, an abundance of shimmer. The ends of the lake wavering on the beach as though their defined line of wear is a clear boarder. The trees as a backdrop, numerous, a thick plethora of green and brown filling in their own gaps. The brush below is hard to determine where one ends and another begins, all to much to be significant, too picturesque to be identified.

The mind makes sense of this nonsense. The mind takes in the scene, it's beauty, and without effort interprets into a feeling. The mind is capable of so much more, so much in fact, that the scene, her landscape, and what she presents through her natural beauty, the accumulation of organisms of all sorts, is mostly a blur, for you might not have noticed the detail if I hadn't brought it into your mind. Instead you might be consumed with a problem at work, or pain in your gut, for these things are out of the ordinary.

We do this all the time, take for granted what we see everyday. The same person, places, things, same behaviors, beliefs, an algorithm for life defined by choice. For, if choice is threatened, then we dedicate some attention to the matter. We look to the coworkers for a steady response, to our family for certain topics, typically news of significance, or we even look to the bus driver, the Uber chauffeur for the irregular and extra-ordinary.

When we are pleasantly surprised, we consider it a blessing. Such as when we win the lottery (well, someone, not me) or we find $5 on the ground, or win a trophy for hard work. These things, even if they were a goal for a long time, like a promotion or finally achieving a job you've worked so hard for, we are still surprised to see the confirmation. "It is not everyday you.....," which makes things special.

Becky, noooooo

When something goes awry from the normal expectation, and we don't like the result, like losing $5 or we get hit by a car, these things are considered "bad," because of the consequence. The act is just as much, if not more so, a surprise, yet because of how we determine it to be, a loss of resources, time, or even pain inflicted, it is a, "bad" thing, something we pray doesn't happen to us. Losing $5 is meant to be a loss of resources, losing a competition means the time and effort in vain, a loss of status like a job or car, all surprises turned negative when "Why God, Why?" As thought out selfish selves is unable to see a larger picture where one occurrence for us affects another.

A surprise is exactly what it was meant to be, something irregular, unexpected. In the absence of surprises, even just a little thing like a client sounding more efficient in their ability to cope with stress, or we get an approval from a boss based on performance, we tend to get bored. Like the reaction of a conversation recipient, we need a surprise, an unexpected result, otherwise the reward was withheld. The surprise reaction, or behavior, the punchline of a joke, all reasons we converse and tell stories. Without the surprise to talk about, one would have no story. Like a story about pouring milk over cereal, only to have the main character eat the cereal, without a surprise we have no purpose.

Due to the sunset in the background, we are to assume she makes it, it would be quite a different
photo is she hadn't. From inspiration to defeat, with one missed step. 

Even in the Garden of Eden, there must have been surprises. However, it would be the environment that would have validated the occurrence, and swayed the opinion to see a positive, for there would be no negative, or isolating feelings, not without sin, not without removal from God. Again, it is the culture that makes the surprise what it was meant to be, and it is our frontal lobe, the part that holds our values and measures the effect in accordance with values, that defines a surprise as a good thing, or intrusive towards goals.

I have not met a person yet, that doesn't want good things, no matter how obsessive they are. No matter the mount of control they have, or the stringent routine, good things can only occur in the absence of good. If everything is good, then when good occurs, it would just be normal, a green, leafy background, overlooked, under-appreciated, and discounted as such. It is the mundane, the everyday, which gives way to the uniqueness to an unaccounted for event that we live for. If we knew what God knew, all the steps to get where we are going, then wouldn't we be loosing the very element that makes us human, the surprise.

Castle-Broken, available Here. Surprise, the book is not about castles, but body image disorders in males.

God Bless.