I had always enjoyed Winnie the Pooh but had never truly appreciated the lovable bear until much later in life.
Early in my marriage, I remember planning a trip to Disney World and receiving zero interest nor participation from my husband in mapping out the activities. One activity that I was adamant about doing was getting my Mickey Mouse pancakes, unfortunately, at that time, you could only get them at the Character’s breakfast.
Enjoying my pancakes, I continually pointed out all the characters to my husband.
“Oh look there’s Mickey,”
“Grumble, grumble,” from my husband.
“Oh look there is Woody from Toy Story,”
“Grumble, grumble,” from my husband.
Starting to feel slightly annoyed in his lack of enthusiasm, I hear a loud voice yell, “Winnie the Pooh!” and I see in a blink of an eye my tough, burly husband running to embrace the large yellow bear with the biggest smile I had ever seen.
So many thoughts were racing through my head, “who is this man? How did I not know this…this love of Winnie the Pooh.” I was so intrigued.
“Why do you love Winnie the Pooh so much?”
“It’s simple, Winnie the Pooh is the greatest,” my husband shared, “Pooh is a true friend with unwavering love.”
“What do you mean unwavering love?”
Unwavering Love
“You see Pooh has several friends and they are all different. There’s Eeyore he suffers from depression, there’s Piglet who is narcotic, the anal-retentive rabbit, Owl, the know it all, the naïve Tigger, and the nurturing mother, Kanga with her fun-loving Ru. And with all of this compilation of personality Pooh bear always manages to keep everyone together and relaxed. Pooh keeps it simple.” he replied.
Pooh allows his friends to be themselves, there’s no judgment and he never disregards their opinion. He keeps it’s simple and doesn’t ever overthink it. Everyone should try to be like Winnie the Pooh.
Apply it to Everyday Life
I thought about that. It could be applied to everything, your circle of friends, your clients, and your co-workers. Sometimes we over complicate things trying to take too much into consideration when really we just need to respect everyone- their lifestyle, their opinions, and even their faults because we all have them.
So my friends, clients, and teammates. . . Keep it simple, like Winnie the Pooh.
When you are a Bear of Very Little brain, and you Think Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.
~Winnie-the-Pooh