Look at the “worthless” and you could find a gem like a “hidden Mickey”…I found one of those, last night, on my kitchen counter.

Disney’s Imagineers hide the three circles that make up Mickey’s face in all kinds of places at the Magic Kingdom. It’s fun to look for them and exciting when you find one….on a sewer cover…printed on the edge of a lamp shade…or hidden in the bubbles of an undersea world.

Here’s the thing, they’re always hidden in places you’d never think of looking, but look at all the time. I think that’s the way life is…there are all kinds of exciting things in the boring, everyday “blah” of life…but we’re too focused on looking for instant gratification and excitement to notice the small things.

Last night my son was excited when I let him cut a huge slice of chocolate cake, put a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of it and drizzled it with fudge sauce. But, the thing that got us talking and dragging the family into the kitchen wasn’t the delicious dessert, but the melted ice cream on the counter…it was in the perfect shape of a “hidden Mickey”.

I could have wiped up the mess and that would have been that, but by choosing to look at the mess with a different set of eyes I found something worthwhile. I hope I can pass that ability on to my kids…don’t assume just because something or someone is broken, old, or “worthless” that they don’t have something amazing to contribute to the world. Because if you do…you’ll miss the “hidden Mickeys” of this life.

Disney’s Imagineers were onto something when they hid happiness in the ordinary.