A photocell…do you know what one is? In simple terms, because i am no expert on lighting,  it is a device that turns lights on when the surrounding atmosphere becomes dark. I appreciated third wonder of technology when i was entering the men’s room of a diner I happened to be eating at. This one had some sort of delay on it and while looking for the light switch and almost falling in the toilet a few great ideas occurred to me. One, never close a bathroom door before the light goes on. Two, what a difference a small amount of light can make in a dark situation.  While using the room for its designed purpose i was struck by how close this event served to mirror life in general. Quite often i find myself wondering what to do when a period of darkness has descended upon the love of a friend, or even my own life. We have all been there. Be it the passing of a loved one or just one of those streaks where everything seems to go wrong. It may seem like our life resembles a rest room with the light burned out and we even are at the risk of having our love fall in the toilet. Much like our friend the photo cell, when in a period of darkness we need to become the light. Going through a period when life seems to be kicking you when your down? Wave at a stranger, compliment the boss after they finish yelling at you, or tip your bartenders little extra. When life turns out your light, become the light! It may literally save your life from being flushed down the drain!

What problems self improvement tip can we gain from a box of childhood craft items? Two very important ones. Try this experiment with me. Find two crayons you are not using. Don’t worry, I’ll wait. They need to be two different colors. Let us say you choose blue and purple because they are my favorite colors. Take the blue crayon and write your name on a piece of paper. Next, take the wrappers of both of the crayons place the purple wrapper on the blue crayon.  Write your name again. Now, break the blue crayon in half (hopefully these were not your children’s crayons) now write your name a third time. Look at all three of your names. I’m guessing they all look fairly similar.  So what does this tell us? We know how to write our names three times? Yes, but not exactly. You see crayons are like people. Before you start thinking of your family members that may smell like a Crayola factory let me explain what we learned here. First we wrote our name with the blue crayon. Then we put the purple wrapper on the blue crayon and wrote our name again. Did it change color? No. Much like people, if we label them, or ourselves, we still are what we are at our very core. Then we broke the blue crayon in half and wrote our name again. Still the same result. Even when people are broken, it does not make them less than. Often people go through a very tough situation and they feel broken. We need to remember this lesson from a crayon. We may be broken, but we can continue to color the world in our own magical way.