“Happiness does not depend on what happens outside of you, but on what happens inside of you. It is measured by the spirit with which you meet the problems of life.”
President Harold B. Lee
A little while ago I was reading someone's blog and she was talking about attitude. I met this someone momentarily at a reunion after party. She was the spouse of someone that I went to high school with. She seemed to be such a happy, upbeat person. Even as I read some of her blog entries I thought, "wow, her happiness is infectious." So as I read her post about changing her attitude and having a positive one I couldn't help but think I had something to learn from this.
I know it will blow most of you away to hear me confess that I am not upbeat and happy all the time. A good chunk of the time I can be a bit negative, focused on the future, and how things will be better then. So on Sunday morning when I read this quote, and thought of this someone's blog, I decided that I need to make a real effort to be happy with the here and now.
Who knows, maybe someday I will miss changing diapers, silly stories, cleaning the flood of messes that are scattered about the house each day, having complete control over who my children interact with, 8:00 bed time, kids home and in bed by 8:00, having the favorite Friday night activity be a movie with popcorn and "julius", having our account balance be $7 or less at the end of any given month (okay, I don't think I'll ever miss that), reading stories, babies laughing at something they think is funny that no one else gets, being the center of my children's universe, and the list goes on and on. So see, I need to be happy with the here and now because there is always something good about the here and now.
5 comments:
Well said. Being in the midst of the student life, I need to realize the same thing.
You obviously don't know me that well, because I am not always happy and positive. Just ask Tyler.
Loved your post. Isn't it so hard to see the silver lining of life while cleaning dirty bottoms, washing the floor under the high chair for the hundreth time that week, wiping boogies off of faces... the list could go on forever.
This is gonna get long, but I just read this in a novel. Made me remember that what I do is fulfilling, even if it is extremely mundane. (Its about a dad who had to stay home with his kids for a week)
"Why hadn't anyone told him that the act of washing tiny clothes corresponded directly to the amount of love you have for their wearers? ...The awareness that their last contact with home life before entering the big bad world had been Daddy made him yearn for them again. How come no one had told him these things? It was a conspiracy! Women had conned men for centuries that these jobs were unfulfilling, yet all this time their souls were being pumped with love."
I guess that's the silver lining...
All that stuff you said you might miss someday--believe me you will!!
Whoops--I forgot to sign the last one. --Alene
How funny Jess. I just read her blog the other day and came across that very same post you linked to. I felt the same way you did. Tyler's a lucky guy eh? I think Seth would love for me to be that positive. Okay, so I'll try with you (even if it is fun to be sarcastic and a little bit of a stinker sometimes.) :) Good post!
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