No matter how devastating or upsetting or bewildering…trust the process.
Everything happens for a reason.
Attitude
Remembrance – and Rhapsody In Blue
Pa in 2005
Today would have been my father, ” Pa’s”, 85th birthday.
Pa, around three years old in the early 1930’s
Pa was a wonderful man who had a difficult childhood with a loving mother (who hailed from Germany), but an alcoholic father. He spent his first decade growing up during the Great Depression. Life was difficult, and he was forced to drop out of school before graduating…but he valued education, and so he completed his diploma and became the first and only person in his family of origin to earn a Bachelor’s degree. He was almost forty years old when he achieved that goal, but he never gave up. Continue Reading…
Simple Gratitude
“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite – only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next ten thousand years, and exhaust it. How sweet to think of! my extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.”
~Henry David Thoreau
Keeping It In Perspective
Happiness today is warm tea in my cheerful rooster mug and a peanut butter sandwich for lunch!
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” ~ J. R. R. Tolkien
The Illusion of Control – Or Being a Superhero
So, lately in my life there have been some extra challenges.
They’re not the life and death kind, thank goodness. I and the people I love are healthy and (mostly) secure.
But the challenges that crop up can be disheartening and distressing, especially when they come in quick succession and kind of knock the wind out of me (you know what I mean?)
Sometimes they’re tied to people I love, and other times they’re connected to my teaching or writing career(s), where despite my best efforts and diligent work, I end up spinning my wheels in a way I never wanted, planned, or intended to. The giant road block (whether tangible, emotional, or mental) rises up in front of me and forces me – usually at great effort – to find a way around it.
Each of these instances sets me back on my heels for a bit. I have to process and come to terms with the hurt or angry feelings and then find a way to move through them to something better.
But that’s like taking a big, scary leap of faith, because continue reading…
M. Reed McCall, Author 