Today is a dreary day. Rain is falling, darkness is looming, and my condo is freezing. Everyone seems to be hurting lately in my life and I have too much to do and not enough time. So, I'm sitting here asking myself, "Do I give in to misery and mope around like Eeyore or do I choose to see the sunshine that I believe is coming and bounce around for joy like Tigger?" Do I focus on the tragedies or count my blessings? It would be easy to curl up in bed and cry or to just retire on the sofa and drown out the thoughts with a pointless reality show. However, what does that accomplish? In fact, I think it may even lead to feeling worse than before it happened. Do I surrender to stress and fear or do I stand tall and say, "No way!" No way, that my day is going to be ruined by something that won't even matter next week. No way am I going to be unproductive, lazy, and selfish when there are much more serious problems in the world today such as malnutrition, war, and disease. No way am I going to feel sorry for myself when I have a roof over my head, food on the table, clothes on my body, a bed to sleep in, clean water, shoes that fit, people that love me, a job, an awesome church, an awesome God, an awesome life compared to the other 75% of people that don't live this way. No way am I going to be a Debbie Downer when my life on the whole is that of which should make me a Happy Helen. I AM blessed and the more I remind myself of that, the more my spirits are lifted. Matter of fact, sometimes it's the darkness that reminds me how fortunate I am to have the light in my life. We need to be humbled from time to time and be grateful for what we DO have. We have so much more than we deserve. Most of us aren't saving lives by the thousands on a daily basis, ending world hunger, stopping pollution, helping animals weekly, or running for President. What did we do to deserve the American life? We were born lucky. That is it. It is a gift and if we don't appreciate it, we might lose it. I am thankful. I am blessed. Even when it rains....
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First of all, it's been way too long since I've wrote! Is it really July and if it is, how did this happen?! Time is a battle that I sometimes feel that I'm racing against but it always seems to get ahead of me. How do we stop time or are we supposed to just accept that everything happens when it's meant to happen? I suppose the latter is true but that doesn't necessarily make it any easier. Of all the things I want to do, it seems 24 hours is just not enough. Fortunately, in the past few months, a lot of progress has been made nonetheless. We have grown our Inspirational Gatherings, developed a Power Board of visionaries, and participated in some exciting opportunities! I am grateful beyond measure for the incredible hearted people that I have encountered along this wildly enthralling journey and thrilled that many of them have stepped up to be on our Power Board, the board of influential members serving as the hands, feet, and minds of the movement. These world changers will play an instrumental role in making the most of our short time here on earth by reaching even more areas of need to do greater good and for that I am forever thankful.
Last PB meeting we talked a little about goals, not just relating to PCW, but also to our own personal lives. By writing down tangible, purpose-filled goals and making it a priority to review them daily, we grow as individuals. When we're growing, we're happier. Remaining stagnant equals dissatisfaction but progress gives us true joy. Consequently, we set some realistic goals, ranging from exercise to reading, for the second half of 2012. We wrote in our special notebooks what we would do daily, weekly, and monthly. Here are some of mine: Daily: Post something positive on Twitter 1x a Week: Volunteer 1x a Week: Meet with an interesting person 3X a Week: Read 3X a Week: Practice Music 4x a Week: Exercise 1x a Month: Attend a conference, workshop, or other training 1X a Month: Conduct research relating to philanthropy What are yours? |