Someone today spoke about how life involves falling down too. True enough. It's not just tiny children learning to walk who fall down, it's all of us at one time or another. Because we are no longer so close to the ground, the fall can also hurt a lot more.
However, we experience the day and days ahead, trying to learn from them is worthwhile. Each of us falls yes, but it is in getting up again, dusting ourselves off and moving again, that we move forward.
Moving forward, not really the same as striving to get ahead. Rather it is a combination of living life consciously. Instead of just seeing a day as something to endure, to get through, to drag ourselves through, we can try and see each day as an opportunity.
We can begin to live better any time we want. We do not need anybody else's permission. We do not need to even talk about it at all.
When we decide to live better, we take control over our own lives and decide not just to let them drift on day after day and week after week.
We can begin when we are ready. A possible starting point is to become aware of more of what our lives are made up of. We can easily look at we already have in our lives.
By looking at the good and the bad..much of which we do not even acknowledge consciously, we can easily see we have something good as a base to continue building upon. We can also see areas of our life we are ready, and able, to finally change.
I always talk about how I realized that so many people in Paris were smiling at me. Since I am/was not much of a 'smiley' person, it took me a few minutes to realize that they were SMILING BACK at me...because I was Smiling at them.
I had a wonderful time on that trip, my BUCKET LIST became a reality and I was able to be happy again despite my doubt it could ever be possible again.
It still took me a lot longer to realize that Smiling was a good place to start. It was possible for me to do, it didn't cost anything and actually could be healthier.
It was however, when I realize that SMILING was actually ADDICTIVE AND CONTAGIOUS, in the best way possible, that I made it a tool in my life and decided it was a very worthwhile to practice until it became a natural and habitual part of my life.
Seeing each day as a new start takes a bit more work.
Some days I am grumpy and this or that muscle aches. Many times, something or somebody drives me crazy. Other times, I hear the news and am dismayed that it is a list of negativity and about how rotten people or the world might be. Then, again, maybe too often, I am frustrated that I STILL have not achieved some great thing.
However, every once in awhile, perhaps on my Birthday, or Christmas, Easter, New Year's, but just as likely on some random morning...like today, I realize that I've come a long way that week, that year, in my life and I am encouraged again.
I also see that I still have a chance to make this day I am waking up to a new day of hope and fun and progress.
I am alive, I am restored, I sit up and get ready to see what today will bring...
We all are a work in progress, and that is not so bad.
