Biggest Lie

So, I have had a lot of feelings of stress, pressure, and being overwhelmed lately. I say this not to draw attention to me, or to elicit sympathy. Instead, it is to express gratitude. Today I got an email from a good friend with a link to a youtube video called "Are you going to finish strong?" It is one of the many, many youtube video's about Nick Vujicic - who is a young man who grew up with no arms and legs. He travels and talks to people about overcoming challenges and recognizing on whom we rely for strength. It gave me a wonderful perspective and helped me in my moment of need.

After I got this email, I watched the video and for the next half hour or so watched related videos. In another video, Nick told a world religious leader (sorry, I don't know who he was, or where he was from) that we can not, and should not compare suffering. We should all work together as God's family to help each other through the struggles that we face and to put our own suffering in perspective. Nick said the following: "The greatest lie that we are believing today is that you need to do this life alone. That’s a lie. God is a personal God, you can talk to Him, you can pray with Him. It’s not about just coming to Church on Sunday’s and doing the status quo. Talk to Him; share your heart with him. Lord, here I am please help me. I’m here today to tell you this, that no matter who you are no matter what you are going through, God knows it, He is with you, He is going to pull you through."

As I listened to and watched these videos I realized that Nick and his message serves as a good reminder that life is what we make of it, and we can choose our reactions to our circumstances - even, or maybe especially, those circumstances that we can not change.

Today I was especially grateful for the reminder that it is a lie that we too often believe that "you need to do this life alone." So, I'll keep praying to God, telling Him my hopes and dreams, my fears and concerns. I will continue to ask for help and seek to remember that I can do all things with His help (which includes the help of those I have been blessed to have play a part in my life).

Lovin' Life

The other day I was sitting eating lunch in my department's building and a friend of mine came in and joined me. We hadn't talked for a bit and we were just catching up on the "What's new?" question. I'm not sure what prompted it, or exactly why I said it, but at one point I said, "I love my life." My friend looked at me and observed, "You don't hear very many people say that."

He's right. I don't often hear people say they love their life. I really do. I feel that I have been so richly blessed and that I have been given so many wonderful opportunities and get to interact with some incredible people. When I start to feel overwhelmed, I remind myself, as I wrote before, the importance of little things and the ability to choose to be happy. For example, I walked to a little park, sat on a bench, read a book, and enjoyed the sun on my face yesterday. Joy. I really do love my life. I love finding happiness and choosing to walk away from frustration and stress as soon as possible.

This does not, however, mean that there is nothing I would change or that there are not things that I long for or that nothing makes me sad. Quite the opposite. There was a song on the radio that was talking about the fact that there are lots of mountains in our lives and the trick is to learn to enjoy the climb. (sorry, I have no idea who sings it, or what it's called - but I want to!) I'm also reminded of a comment made in a seminar I went to talking about balance in life. The seminar was given by Kevin Rollins, former CEO of Dell Computers, who said that life is 99% mundane and 1% exciting. He said, and I've found, that if we only wait for the "exciting" 1% we'll miss out on a lot of good times. So, I just try to take life as it comes and love it. Often it is one of the many amazing people around me who in one way or another remind me how good my life is, how much better it is to be happy, or just make me laugh or give me a hug and help me refocus.

Thanks to all you fantastic people who make my life so wonderful and remind me that it's really not so bad when I'm tempted to throw a pity party!

PS for an awesome talk on this subject read "Come What May and Love It"

PPS I found the lyrics: It's a song called "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus the chorus says:

There's always going to be another mountain
I'm always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I'm gonna to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

Think Happy Thoughts

A few nights ago I was getting into my bed and heard the sound of something falling off my night stand into my garbage can. With a slight scowl on my face I paused to find out what it was that found its way into the garbage can.

I pulled out this little frame that I had nearly forgotten was there - half buried under my Ensign, journal, some tissues, a letter or two and who knows what else. It has a picture of a cute little girl with a hat on that is clearly too big for her and says "The happy thought that lasts a moment can bring joy that lasts all day." It was the perfect reminder at the end of a long, stressful day. I stepped back and thought about my day and the little happy things that had happened. Thinking about those things really did bring joy and my frustration melted away and a smile graced my face.

Then I had this sudden memory of Peter Pan and the trick to flying to Never Land. They had to think happy thoughts. Happy thoughts were powerful and enabled them to fly. I think that metaphorically speaking the same thing is true in our lives. We are lifted up as we think about happy, positive things. We are given the ability to rise above the circumstances we find ourselves in. We can be transported to a better, brighter place. Thoughts are powerful, and we can choose which ones we will entertain. So I'm going to try to increase my happy thoughts, and by so doing increase my joy :)