Bubbles

Bubbles

I stood on my grandmother's front porch with my son.
He had a bottle of bubbles. You know the type; it's
basically soapy water with a plastic loop on each end.
You dip the loop in the bottle, pull it out, and blow it to
make bubbles.

My son understood the principle but was vainly trying to
blow bubbles. He would dip and dip and blow and blow, but
alas, no bubbles.

He handed me the bottle and loop and asked me, "Daddy can
you make bubbles?" I hadn't blown bubbles in years. I am
a chemist by education, fairly well-trained in surfactant
technology. I have formulated several shampoos, so I
understand surface tension and related foaming
characteristics of surfactants. Surfactant is just a big
fancy word for a soap or detergent.

All that knowledge isn't worth a hoot when trying to blow
bubbles from a loop filled with soapy water. I was having
no more success than my son. I would dip and puff, no
bubbles; the soapy film on the loop would just pop without
releasing any bubbles.

After several futile attempts, I changed tactics.

Instead of puffing on the loop of soapy water, I gently
breathed on it. My son squealed with delight as a big
beautiful bubble emerged and floated away.

He grabbed the loop, dipped and blew. No bubbles.

I explained to him, "Son you can't blow hard, you must ever
so gently breathe on the loop to make bubbles."
He restrained his ardent desire to make big bubbles by blowing
hard and followed my advice.

Big bubbles.

It was a moment as I saw another principle of
life floating away in the bubbles.

There are some things that you can get with brute force, but
there are other things that only come with the gentleness
of a soft breath. Too often, we try to force love or real
respect. It won't come. It just pops before the bubble
can ever form because we try to put too much force on it.

The closer something is to higher spirit, the more it is
like bubbles; it can't be forced and is more often found in
the soft things of life.

You have a bottle of bubbles and you have been puffing
trying to get them out.

Blow beautiful bubbles; breathe easy.
Thank you for this story , B.J. Coward
Jan Bagwell
God Bless