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Today's
Meditation:
This is a
fundamental truth of life, yet so many people get it
backwards-- they believe that their lives are determined by
what happens to them. They react to things that
happen and things that other people do rather than act
upon their own knowledge and instincts and feelings.
The truth, though, is that much of the way that we feel
about life, much of our perspective on life, much of our
satisfaction or dissatisfaction with life comes from our
perspective on life and living, and not as a result of
those things that happen.
And
instead of "much," dare I say
"most"? Could it even be that all of the
way we feel about life comes from the ways that we see
things? By the attitude that we bring to life?
Do we have the attitude of a victim, someone whose
happiness or misery depends upon the chances of life, or
the attitude of a person who's going to recognize the
opportunities in the seeming setbacks, and the beauty in
what seem to be harsh realities?
I've
been laid off before; my response was to wonder what
different thing life had in store for me that I wouldn't
have pursued had I kept my job. I say this only as
an observation, because I feel very fortunate that I'm
able to look at life this way. My attitude saved me
from a lot of anger and resentment, both of which would
have taken a serious and significant toll on my peace of
mind and my happiness. We choose our attitudes, so
let's choose attitudes that contribute to our happiness,
shall we?
Life
does happen. Of course it does. But the way we
see what happens is the most important part of the
happenings of life, after all. If someone does
something bad to me, I learn something about them rather
than consider it something awful that happened to
me. If there's a setback, I ask myself what I should
learn from it that I wouldn't have learned without
it. Our attitudes determine much of the lives we
lead, so isn't it time that we make sure that our
attitudes are honed to a point at which they can most help
us and those we love, rather than harm us?
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