posted December 04, 2004 12:00 AM         

"We are all of us lying in the gutter...only some of us are looking up at the stars." Oscar Wilde said that. I have it posted on the bulletin board over my desk, right at eye level. Some days I barely notice it. Some days I read it three times a minute. It is there as a reminder.
It reminds me that life never happens the way you expect it. Either something does not occur, or too many things occur - all at the same time. The important thing is how you react to it, how you accept it. Do you accept it as it is? Or do you wallow in it, waiting for something else to change it? There have been many times in my life I have wallowed, waiting for my mistakes and problems to work themselves out. I now regard that way of thinking as my youth and inexperience. With time and age life has taught me enough lessons, hard lessons, to know that if I expect things to change I have to make the effort. Not always an easy thing to do, making yourself get up and do what needs to be done. It can be quite painful, but as my father would tell me, "No one said life was easy."
I have another quote imprinted in my mind that I recite quite often through the day as well. "What was "is" no more, what will be "is" not yet, what "is" is all there is." I cannot change what has already happened. No amount of wishing or worrying can remedy something done. I cannot determine exactly what will happen. Life has a way of throwing curve balls, gutter balls, and that dodge ball from elementary PE class aimed right at you by the biggest, strongest kid in the school that you never saw coming until it hit you right between the eyes. No amount of wishing or worrying will change what has not already happened.
My life has become much nicer, not easier, but more hopeful, since I decided to focus on "now." Again, not easy, sometimes painful, but quite worth it. I have to accept what life has given me, knowing that "what is" is the exact thing needed at that moment. Kind of like the stuffed green pepper my parents made me eat as a kid. I sat at the table for six hours choking down that cold, greasy pepper. How much easier it would have been if I had accepted the fact I had to eat it, instead of trying to wish it off my plate.
Accepting a situation in life is sometimes the hardest thing to do. Remembering the difference between accepting something and liking something is even harder.

posted December 06, 2004 12:26 AM         

Blessings all.

posted December 10, 2004 10:22 PM         

Well done

posted December 11, 2004 02:01 AM         

I agree with Sheaa on that quote!