Our words for the week come from Robert R. Updegraff, author of Be Thankful For Your Troubles.
Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it is too late. Today, this hour, this minute is the day, the hour, the minute for each of us to sense the fact that life is good, with all of its trials and troubles, and perhaps more interesting because of them.
Short but simple …
THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: Who we are is where happiness lies, but this is so often blocked by who we have become — Dr. Caroline Leaf
The Light 
I’d not imagined cancer a blessing
but I found it has a voice,
quiet and stern and never digressing:
“Your happiness is your choice.”
I’d placed my joy in other things,
in people and in places;
in fast cars and faster wings,
but I overlooked the smaller graces.
Today I watched the morning light
call desert flowers to bloom,
and in that gently touched delight
I forgot about my doom.
We all must take the fatal cup,
so tilt back your head, and look up.
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Tilt back your head … and look up! I remember Karen in her last days saying it was the little things she never saw before that brought her her daily blessing.
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Joe…wow. Your sharing that means a LOT. I’m honoured.
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I have learned to find happiness in the little things in life. A sunrise or a sunset. Birds chirping in the morning or the evening. Watching squirrels scurrying on the ground and gathering nuts for their next meal. Observing the little anole lizards coming out and sunning themselves in the morning. We have millions of these little lizards in Florida. Watching a harvest moon as it rises on the horizon. Taking the time to look up at the sky at night, and seeing the moon and the stars. I can’t think of anything more beautiful than nature itself.
I have learned to sometimes look at life through a philosophical lens. I once saw a video of a lion chasing a gazelle. I was hoping the gazelle would get away, so the gazelle could live another day. Then I realized that if the lion can’t catch the gazelle, the lion would go hungry for another day. A cat’s digestive system can only digest meat. A cat has no other choice. They have to kill another animal to be able to survive. Everything seems to be a matter of perspective.
There is an old adage: It is better to light one candle, than to curse the darkness. Life itself is a teacher. We learn by our experiences in life. Sometimes, we face difficulties and tragedies in life, but I have learned that this tends to build character within us, and we can become better people.
Would I want to go back and go through the difficult times again ? Hell no….LOL.
Another way of looking at this: People may complain that caterpillars are ugly. But if we didn’t have caterpillars, then we would never have beautiful butterflies. In a sense, we are imperfect human beings, kind of like those caterpillars. But someday we will transform, and we will become like the butterflies.
Don’t worry….be happy.
Bruce
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Be happy … and attentive to the little things in life.
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