happiness is your choice

A few months ago I got a text that read: "I've learned that you have a great take on pretty much everything." Just a few simple words but they carried a lot of meaning. When I first read it, my initial mental response was "well doesn't everyone?" I guess in the context of whatever we were talking about, I didn't think I was saying anything great or deserving of such a statement. I was merely stating my thoughts on the matter. I guess I was just thinking that doesn't everyone try to find the silver lining or the good in the bad or outweigh positives with negatives? 

Whatever you want to call it, isn't it a whole lot easier to live when you focus on good things instead of the bad? If life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it, then doesn't that mean that we are somewhat in control in the way each day plays out?

In the past few weeks alone, I have heard a lot of conversations about pain, stress, confusion, complaints and the not so happy parts of life. At the same time, I have heard about joys, growth, love and general optimism about life. At the end of the day, the battles we are fighting and the problems we are facing are all the same. Problems are not unique. The details of a specific scenario might be, but there is nothing that has happened to someone that has never happened to anyone else. Hate to break it to you and me, but your problems and my problems and my neighbors problems are fundamentally the same. Pain always manifests itself through the same venues: because we are all human and we all make mistakes. And because we make mistakes, those mistakes hurt other people as an unfortunate by product. That is just the reality of the world we live in. 

Or maybe your problem isn't, per say, pain. Maybe you're just confused about life. Maybe you overloaded yourself and are really stressed out. Maybe you failed a test. Maybe you forgot to pack a lunch and now you're just angry out of sheer hunger. Maybe traffic is pissing you off or that car that just stole the parking space you've been waiting for. Maybe you're pissed off because your roommate never does the dishes or your boyfriend says all the wrong things. Maybe going to a class that has no relevance to life or working a job you aren't particular excited leaves you feeling moody and not particularly excited about life. To be honest, I don't blame you. Life can provide you with a million things to be not excited about and downright feeling really over it...

Or life can give you a million things to be excited about. It's kinda, actually, really up to you.

Quote of the Day 1/21/14

“Today is your big moment. Moments, really. The life you’ve been waiting for is happening all around you. The scene unfolding right outside your window is worth more than the most beautiful painting, and the crackers and peanut butter that you’re having for lunch on the coffee table are as profound, in their own way, as the Last Supper. This is it. This is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. But pull of the mask and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chosen, woven, crafted. Your life, right now, today, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better than the best movie you have ever seen. You and your family and your friends and your house and your dinner table and your garage have all the makings of a life of epic proportions, a story for the ages. Because they all are. Every life is. You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural. You are more than dust and bones. You are spirit and power and image of God. And you have been given Today.” [Shauna Niequist - Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life]