Visions

...for without a vision, the people perish......

Vision Boards seem to be the new 'New Year's Resolution'. You know how us sophisticated people do: We recreate and re-name things but they are simply recycled ideas. My father used to tell me that there's nothing new under the sun. And I've come to the conclusion that he was right about this...as he was most things.....

So my ladies care group got together and created vision boards. Most of us centered around health, wealth, and whatever we want to change to make ourselves better. My life is like a toggle switch: I go back and forth between 'I'm good where I am' to 'I want to change everything about me'! But the one thing that I know I have to change is my mental state. I am good enough-but there is always room for improvement. I must focus on what I think would make me a better me and not what others think. I also have to make myself realize and understand that the changes that I want to make will take time. In science, we understand that most changes occur over time and not instantaneously. The land masses that have changed shapes over the years, the animals that have adapted to their surroundings and survived the changing of their environments-those changes were made over time. 

This means that it's time for the big P's to take over: Patience and Perseverance. Unfortunately, I have been a part of the 'Microwave Generation'--I want what I want NOW!' That's not working out too well for me! 😆 One of the beautiful things about being raised by a parent and adults who were from previous generations is that I was able to be taught with those principals and standards for living life. If the previous generations were to survive the hand that Life dealt them, they had no choice but to have the big P's. Nothing was fair, nothing was just given to them, yet they worked hard and didn't mind. And they took the set-backs in stride! I know there were outliers and extremist even then; but for the most part, whatever life handed them, they took it and made something beautiful out of it! 

So yes, I have visions of different things happening in my life. But before any of that can happen, I pray and ask God for the big P's. Without it, I'm just going to be a toggle switch going back and forth.....

I choose to be.....

Happiness....it's a choice and a conscious decision. How many times have we heard people say that they want to break up with their significant other or spouse because 'they don't make me happy anymore'? In a former life, I would empathize with the person or pray that the other person would realize the err of their ways and make my friend happy. Now, I really want to violently shake them and slap them into reality. We are responsible for our own happiness! It's as simple as that! As adults, we make choices-some we regret, some we survive and some we thrive from. Regardless, they are our choices.

“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.” – Dale Carnegie

Day by day, and sometimes minute by minute, I make a decision to be happy. I do my best to compartmentalize issues and realize that what happened at work does not have to interfere with my home life. My kids, friends, and loved ones should not have to pay for what happened at work or on the way home. One idiotic driver should not be the reason that everyone on the road has to deal with my road rage. 

Just because I try my best to live a happy life, doesn't mean that I don't go through darkness. Sometimes I think that people who try to live happy may go through more things that people who don't. That still doesn't negate the fact that my happiness is mine--my choice, my decision. The Bible tells us in ALL things give thanks. WOW! That has proven to be a tough one! But I try. I don't always succeed-but I try. I'm at a point now that no matter what's going on, I want my response to be positive. That doesn't mean that I don't grieve, get mad, yell, scream or have break downs--that means that in the end-I trust that my outcome is going to be in the positive for me. 

“If you think sunshine brings you happiness, then you haven’t danced in the rain.” – Unknown

I think of it like this: If my happiness isn't dependedent on something or someone, then when that something or someone is gone, I still have my happiness!

I choose happiness......