Wednesday's Words for August 28, 2013

You’ve heard it said, I am sure, that people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. My problem is I can’t tell the difference. I am constantly, even eagerly, slotting folks into that last category. I’m like an excited little puppy all wound up having someone—or several someone’s—new in my life—a puppy who gets all frisky and happy and bounces back and forth as if saying, “Wanna play? Wanna play?” Then when things happen—things that seem inexplicable to me, things that leave me wondering what I could possibly have done wrong, I’m left broken hearted because those people turn and walk away with no backward glance whatsoever and I am left feeling totally and completely bereft.

I’m beginning to suspect that the only thing I keep doing wrong is slating people into the “lifetime” category who never should have been there in the first place. I’ve only begun to realize this flaw in my previous behavior because the ones I have now in that “lifetime” slot were the ones meant to be there all along.

I know I can’t be the only person this has happened to. Life has taught me that very, very few of us ever experience something that no one else ever has. I’ve had a number of traumatic and tragic things happen in my lifetime. I know that probably most of you have, too. At some point, maybe twenty years ago or so, I came to the decision that if life really was only 5 percent what happened to me and 95 percent how I dealt with it, then I’d better see if I could deal with things in a way that would be beneficial to others, and therefore beneficial to myself.

Yes, that’s another variation of making lemonade out of lemons.

Because I am, down to my soul, a writer, then dealing with things in a beneficial way meant I had to write about them. Those who can look beyond the wink-wink-nudge-nudge of my novels will discover that I deal with a lot of issues that many of us struggle with in life. What I don’t deal with that way, I manage to tackle within the pages of these essays, every week.

Life is a journey and like any long trip, not all of it is made over smooth roads. Sometimes we have to travel the gravel side roads, and sometimes we find ourselves on deeply rutted dirt trails. Sometimes we’re making our way in the company of good companions, and sometimes we are achingly alone.

Everyone has to define the terms under which they want to live their lives. We each of us have our own priorities, and we’re not all the same. We aren’t all given to the same purposes or causes; we don’t define happiness or sadness in exactly the same way. We really are unique, each one of us. We share a common humanity, yes, and a common spectrum of possibilities, but the fine points, the details, are different for us all.

As I’ve gotten older, as more milestones have gone by my personal window on this, my life’s journey, I understand as I never did before how self sufficient we are, and at the same time, how isolated we are.

I believe that we were created to help one another. Do you want to have a good, really good, feeling inside of yourself? Then take your eyes off yourself and help someone else. Do you want to feel as if you matter? Then matter to others—do something that makes a difference either to an individual or a group.

Are you the only one who has ever made a horrible mistake, lost someone dear, or suffered an injury to your body or your soul? Of course not. We all have. Is every day a day of joy and laughter and all things positive and light?

If only. Nope, there are at least as many dark days as there are light ones in anyone’s life; the difference lies in how we rate them. I personally give happy, sunny days a 5 rating, and the gloomy, sad ones a 0.5 one.

Oh yes, that is stacking the deck in my favor, but then I can do that if I want to. Because the most important principle I have learned in life says I can. What is that principle? Gosh, I am glad you asked.

It’s that, in the final analysis, everything emotional—and I do mean everything—is a decision. How you handle the firestorms that come your way, is a decision.

Life doesn’t control your heart or your mind or your soul. You do.

Love,
Morgan
http://www.morganashbury.com
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury