Motivational Monday

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.  ~Abraham Lincoln

I'm going to share something here today that few know.  It won't be some deep revelation or some dirty little secret.  It's just a little nugget of truth about the life I've been blessed with... are you ready?  Things aren't perfect.

Yep, I've said it out loud.  I get a lot of notes asking me how to have some stress-free, fabulous life which people mistakenly believe that I lead.  I don't know where this misconception comes from because I share it all - the good, the bad and the ugly - but it happens several times a week.

My life is far from perfect.  My husband's position at his work has been absorbed into another location that is almost 2 hours away so he either has to drive that distance or move into a position he does not care for... plus, his paychecks have been half of what they used to be for the past two months.  Hobbit is a very strong willed child who knows where all of my buttons are located and likes to play hopscotch on them at least once a day.  Peanut would rather spend the summer at her grandparents house instead of coming home from university.  We have exactly $1.72 in our bank account to last us until Friday and the budget did not allow for me to have creamer this pay period so I've not had any coffee for two weeks.  My life is far from perfect - but that doesn't mean I can't choose to be happy.

When I was a high school senior, I had a fabulous Government and Economics teacher named Mrs. Moore.  She was smart, snarky and had no problem 'getting down on our level'.  I will always remember her telling people that would come into class, upset over the usual teenage drama, that they had two choices - they could be upset over things they can't fix or they could simply choose to be happy.  I simply choose to be happy.

Now don't get me wrong - I do indulge myself in the occasional good cry but I also know that all it will do is get my face wet and give me a headache.  So once that good cry is done, I pick myself up and figure out what I can do to make it better.  If it is something outside of my control, I simply decide to make the best of it because if I can't control it at least I can control my reaction to it.

So there you go - my life is a mess, things are chaotic and I have a special roped off section in the back of my mind that is in a constant state of worry over finances and family.  The difference is, that roped off section is in the back of my mind, not the front, so that I can do my best to find the happiness in the day.  I'm 40 years old.  I've got grey hairs and a fluffy physique.  My number of days on this earth are finite and I would rather spend the precious time that I have been given being happy about things instead of wandering around miserable.

Thanks, Mrs. Moore - 24 years later and your reminder to "choose your mood" is still echoing through my head and leading me through the day.