Life Lesson...

I recently had a talk with one of our daughters that has turned out to be one of those conversations that will forever remain etched into my brain.

Bad things happen to good people. We perceive what, through our eyes, we envy in others and that is their endless blessings and their seeming idiocy in taking them all for granted.  We do not see with their eyes, nor do they see with ours.  My grandfather once told me to never judge another until you've walked a mile in their shoes and have seen life through their eyes. In other words, do not envy what you know nothing about, no matter how it looks from the outside looking in.

By the same token, do not put what you perceive as a cushion of safety and distance around yourself to keep you safe from possibly being hurt by others who could do so or let you down lest you tar everyone with the same brush and push away what could have become your greatest blessings and source of strength if you had only been brave enough to let them in. Bravery is not being unafraid, it is being afraid and trying anyway because the reason for it is that important and to not give up. The ONLY way you will fail at ANYTHING in life is to stop trying.

Not all people will let you down. Will some of them? Of course! Will YOU let someone down? Of course! Will you always let someone down?  That is for you to decide for you must also reach out and give the love, friendship and hope everyone needs to thrive and be happy in order to receive it.

Nobody controls everything in their lives, we don't even control most things and as children, we control even less.  As we age we begin to learn to control the only thing we truly can change and that is our own reactions to the events of the life we are living and have lived and those people around us. Make a difference in someone else's life in order to make a difference in your own.

I believe that all things happen for a reason and also that we can't always see the reason for it. If we could know all that would happen in our future, there would be no new beginning in every sunrise. No joy to be discovered with each new day, no satisfaction of a job well done or a difference made at the end of every new night.

Do not look on your past as if you are the moon that has been pitted and marred by those things that have hit and hurt it.  See instead the hand and chisel of a talented sculptor who still chips away at the rough edges to reveal the strength and beauty that awaits inside the lump of rock to yet be revealed.

QOTD: "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." ~ Michelangelo