What do you overlook?

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. — William James

When we wake up every morning, it is a new day of people we see, places we go, and things we do. Sometimes we are okay with it and sometimes we are not. It is up to us to decide what to look at and what to overlook.

My husband and I have had this discussion over and over when it comes to our teenage son. I have told him that sometimes he needs to overlook things our son does and pick his battles wisely. His dad was very strict and overbearing with him and he tends to have those same issues. I didn't have the same strictness when I was growing up. My mom is still a pushover to this day.

I did not have brothers growing up so I am learning firsthand what it is like to have a house full of boys. Some things I overlook and chalk up to boys being boys. There are other situations that I will step up and deal with because I have to in order to raise my son right. I can't stand my son having his pants hang down past his butt and neither can my husband. I choose to overlook it as a trend he is going through, as he has gone through many during his 15 years of life. I do get on him about it when we are in public, but I do it in a kind way. My husband chooses to be irritable about it and is always yelling at my son about picking up his pants.

My daughter and I were at the grocery store the other evening. As we were heading down the soda aisle, I noticed a woman in a store wheelchair/shopping cart struggling to put some boxes of soda in her cart. I tapped my daughter on the arm and asked her to help the lady out. We ended up putting several boxes in her cart and she was grateful. My husband on the other hand, although he probably would have helped, would have overlooked it because he is not as observant as me when it comes to little things like that.

Some people tend to go through life looking out for themselves and do not notice what is going on around them. I see it everyday when I am driving and people cut other drivers off or turn in front of others suddenly or grab a spot in the parking lot without looking to see if anyone else was there. I see it when I am out in the stores and people don't watch where they are going or just grab things off of the shelf or cut in line. They aren't paying attention to the world around them.

I tend to overlook most of these things as I don't want to have health problems at the expense of these other people's rudeness. Why stress out over something so insignificant? What you need to not overlook are the things that can harm you or your family. It takes a really wise person to decide which situations are the ones worth overlooking. Maybe that is why I have so much gray hair!