Words to Live By

“Optimism doesn’t mean you get to skip the bad stuff.  If you’re truly optimistic or have a capacity to hope, it should allow you to look at what’s bad and really get it’s measure, and say, ‘What is the extent of this?’ It’s the courage to look at something and say, ‘However bad this is, it isn’t bad indefinitely.’” Michael J. Fox

For some reason, this totally hit home today. Maybe its because I was reading {this} woman's story. My mom came across it the other day. She went to the same high school with her husband, Shawn Merriman. Its truly a heart-rending story. I cried, I laughed, and was absolutely amazed at her attitude toward the "life cards" she has been dealt. Inspiring. When you have some time, be sure to visit her blog on Wordpress. You won't be disappointed.
Sometimes I look at life and wonder why I get dealt what I do, and why everyone else gets dealt what they do. Sometimes I feel jealous, envious, or critical of others and what I perceive as their "perfect" lives {especially when I'm blog-hopping. So many creative, focused people out there with exciting news to share, its hard not to have any of those feelings in my opinion}. I can really let it get me down. But, focusing on any of these feelings does me no good in my life. It's easy to look at a situation and say "There is always someone else that has it worse than you," but really, I don't feel that is totally true. In your mind, they may be worse off than you. They may be going through something you would never be able to handle enduring in a million years. But who knows what they are thinking. Maybe they feel the same way about things they see happening to you in your life. You just never know. They say there is a reason for everything that happens to a person in their life, and I believe in that. We can choose to be on the Lord's side, and he will always give us strength to proceed through whatever situations we may come upon in life; and not just endure, but endure well. We can be successful through hard times and the great times.
As hard as it is, I am going to be grateful for the things I am given. Good or bad. Because life only happens once, and there is something {or a few somethings} to come away with in every situation we are faced with.

Today, I choose to follow the adage: "Come what may, and love it." by Joseph B. Wirthlin. I love my life, I love my experiences, and I have plenty of reasons to walk tall.