2018 didn't go very well for me. Maybe it did but I just don't realize because it started bad (work contract ended in Feb, new job started in July) and ended very bad- lost two members of my immediate family. I couldn't wait to turn a new leaf. But truth be told, it's never the fault of the year or the day because a day is just a finite amount of time allotted to every single living being in equal measures. A good day or year for you maybe a terrible day or year for me, it's not time's fault.
I think in the end it is about our attitude..it's about seeing the glass half full or half empty. We can always find something to be thankful for-always! And that's the attitude I decided to enter 2019 with; even though my belief is being challenged again and again as the days go by.
More losses, more fears, more heartaches..but that's just looking at it half empty. Turn the picture around and I see; more challenges faced and survived, more lessons learnt, more fears faced and conquered. Not so bad, is it?
I just finished reading a book called, "Happiness is a choice you make", written by John Leland. It was about lessons learnt from 6 octogenarians. The biggest lesson I learnt was the quote about not letting a day pass by were we don't feel thankful for at least one thing because we will never get that day back. Life can be long but it does go by fast and in the end when the time comes for us to leave this earth you want to feel happy and proud of the time you spent on it. And just one day, one memory, one second can make the difference. So let's make this year the year we learn to start living. I am going to start my journey of feeling and staying positive because that always beats the alternative. I encourage you to do the same. See you here next week..same time, same place. I will share how well I did with my goal. Good luck to all. Bonne chance.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from that book:
“The good things in life-happiness, purpose, contentment, companionship, beauty, and love-have been there all along. We don't need to earn them. Good food, friends, art, warmth, worth-these are the things we have already. We just need to choose them as our lives.” ―John Leland.
“In a culture that constantly tells us to overcome our limitations, sometimes it is more productive to find ways to live with them. For people”
“problems were only problems if you thought about them that way. Otherwise they were life—and yours for the living.”
“The lesson was to find happiness not in the absence of pain and loss, but in their acceptance.”
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