Saturday, February 06, 2021

Six Life Lessons: I Shall Never Forget the Day



"The greatest discovery of my lifetime is that
by changing my attitude, I can change my life."
MARY KAY ASH


I have been sorting through cupboards and old files this past week. Found all manner of kitchenware and items I haven't used in ages, which are now neatly packed in boxes headed to the thrift store when the weather warms up. I've also been culling my bourgeoning file of blog drafts—over 200, if you want to know. Some drafts were easy to delete, their 'best before' date long expired. But others, the ones where my finger hesitates over the delete key because there are nuggets worth keeping, these cling like Saran Wrap, unwilling to be discarded, gently urging me to do something with them, like maybe you should finish and post them, girlie.

In one of those clingy drafts, I once made notes for myself—a little list of aha moments that, when I looked back, had been life changers for me. Like Mary Kay Ash in the quote above, I'd come to see that when I changed my attitudes, made different choices, my life changed for the better, into something softer and more graceful. Today I offer you this once languishing draft, now spruced up into a new post, and I hope that you will find it has been worth saving.


One
'I choose happy'


I shall never forgot the day when... as a young woman, I sat enraptured listening to Miss America 1980, Cheryl Prewitt-Salem, as she spoke at a women's conference. She was our keynote speaker that weekend, and she shared in one session about how we as women have the ability to choose to be happy—to be happy any time, any place, and in any situation. Yes, even on PMS days and when things didn't turn out as we wanted.

The idea startled me. I went home empowered. Until that point I'd basically allowed the moods and their swings to run things in my life. I didn't know I could take charge of how I felt on any given day, that melancholy was not boss of me, that I didn't have to wait for a mood to pass before I felt happier. As I established this new habit, it was a struggle at first, but whenever I remembered I could choose how I felt, I always chose happy. It became the pattern of my life.


Two 
'I'm not indulging in Blue Mondays'


I shall never forget the day when... I stood mindlessly waiting my turn in the cafeteria lunch line at work, when it suddenly came to me that indulging in a Blue Monday—a day that was depressing or especially trying because we had to return to work and routine after a nice weekend—was a complete waste of energy. I didn't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that buying into that socially accepted gloom around the proverbial water cooler, I was wasting one seventh of my precious life.

My mom once shared with me that she used to loved Mondays when she was raising her family. After the busy weekend, she'd send her kids off to school and her husband off to work, and she looked forward to the day ahead where she could just get busy with her own work. Ha ! It really is all a matter of perspective.


Three 
'Freedom to choose'


I shall never forget the day when... I discovered these mind altering words in Viktor E. Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning: "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way."

Frankl endured years of unspeakable horror in Nazi death camps during World War II. Through his own suffering and watching hundreds of people being defiled, demoralized, and tortured, he came to see that, "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

Those words blew my mind. They changed my life. If this man, in those circumstances, could still recognize and hold onto that last of the human freedoms—the ability to choose one's own attitude—surely I could, in my own little world, make such a choice too. How many times since that long ago day have I remembered the tiny space in which I have freedom to decide how I shall respond.


Four 
'Gratitude changes everything'


I shall never forget the day when... I first learned how to keep a gratitude journal from Sarah Ban Breathnach. In her book Simple Abundance, which I happily discovered back in the 1990s, Sarah shared how she started a daily notebook and wrote down each evening five things she was grateful about that day. Taken with the idea of keeping such a record, I found a pretty notebook and tuned in to the world around me, much the way an artist might observe her world, so I could have something interesting to write down.

Everything around me took on a whole new meaning. I began to pay closer attention to things I had been taking for granted. I began to see how rich I truly was. Although I never kept specific gratitude journals after that season, the exercise forever changed my life. I am thankful to Sarah for introducing me to this grace of walking in gratitude.


Five
'Self pity is no party'


I shall never forget the day when... as a young woman, I'd watch my friends and siblings getting married, happy for them, but coming home to my single girl's bedroom feeling sad and sorry for myself. I'd mope around. Around that time I had been working on my attitudes. I used to imagine what heaven must be like in all its beauty, happiness, and perfection. It hit me one day. Heaven would not be a place where people had pity parties. Well, if it wasn't in heaven, I did not want any part of it in my life here on earth. (Based on the prayer of Jesus, 'thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven')

Self pity had been a buddy of mine. She used to come and sob with me, keep me company, but she wasn't helpful at all. As someone said, when you feel sorry for yourself, you exaggerate your misfortune, you experience a sense of hopelessness and victimhood. The day I slammed the door of my heart on it, declaring I would never host a pity party again, changed my life. Self-pity is addictive, and I remember it trying to come back in those early days, I had to be vigilant, to keep saying no. Eventually, with Divine help from within, I was free. I think I'm bearing truth when I say, I've never entertained a pity party since. If it ever showed its face, I'd just say no and it'd disappear. It's now been more than thirty years.


Six
'With vitality and good humour'


I shall never forget the day when... my sister shared a little story she had read about Julia Child's mother. Julia described her mom as someone who lived her life with vitality and good humour. Oh, how I liked that, those words resonated, for that's how I wished to live my own life—with that sense of aliveness to whatever life brought and to face it with a cheerful, amiable disposition.

It was a habit I had to learn.

There was a time years ago when I used to remind myself at bedtime that I wanted to wake up with vitality and good humour. It was during a dark season. The words must have hovered in the air overnight, for they were waiting when I woke up—reminding me not to get up on the wrong side of the bed. To this day, I bring out those words on occasion, especially when I find myself heading to a gloomier frame of mind. I still feel their strength in my soul as I ready myself for a new day.
 

* * *

"Last weekend a young man asked me how I remain so positive.
'It seems all the negativity in the world doesn't affect you,' he said.
I had no more than a minute with the young man so I offered this:
It's all about where you choose to put your attention,
and I choose to be happy."
JASON MRAZ 

It's not about ignoring the hard, ugly stuff going on around us; it's just that in order for me to get on with my day with any semblance of grace and with a sense of beauty—for that is what most inspires me to get out of bed in the mornings—I must be selective about where I keep my attention. And like Jason Mraz, I choose to be happy. I choose to cast all my cares upon the Lord of the Universe and then get on with my day.

* * *

On that note, I hope you enjoyed.
Wishing you a pleasant weekend.

Heart hugs,
Brenda
xox



Photos Credits: All photos from Pixabay.com




21 comments:

  1. A great list of 'aha' moments-definitely worth saving and sharing! I love the epiphanies that come to us in a flash, yet change our path forever. And those changes have a ripple effect out into the world at large. I really do think it is one of the "easiest" ways to make the world a better place:) (Gives me a bit of a shiver to think how easy it would be to ignore/miss out on the opportunities that come our way to choose something different than we're used to.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very inspirational! I needed this guidance today! What a positive difference we will be able to make in the world following these guidelines! Thank you for sharing! Wishing you very special days ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  3. wow, thanks for sharing-so many good positive ideas for improving each day...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree, that attitude has so much to do with how our life goes.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Such a great list! Your observations are very true!

    ReplyDelete
  6. All sooo good. I'm going to print this out to reread often. Thanks for your openness and sharing this with us today. Blessings . . .

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am so glad that you chose to share this set of positive thoughts with us today!! Vitality and good humour! Yes! Attitude of Gratitude! Coming right up! Choose to be Happy! At last!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you for sharing these "aha" moments with us, Brenda. Attitude adjustments can change one's outlook dramatically.

    ReplyDelete
  9. See, it was well worth using this old draft and freshening it up for today. A great post and I agree, attitude is everything and all we have to do is make a choice. Some lovely thoughts shared.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love how each of these epiphanies changed the trajectory of your life path towards joy and beauty. And so much of it had to do with making a choice. How wonderful that your choices didn’t only affect your life, but continues to touch the lives of every one of your readers, of which I am one. 🙂

    ReplyDelete
  11. I always think that your posts can't possibly get better....but yet, they do. This was so beautifully written, and illustrated. Thank you Brenda, it spoke to my heart (which sometimes needs to work on attitude).

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh Brenda what a wonderfully, encouraging and uplifting post. All of the points were good, but number six is what grabbed me, I want to wake up with vitality and good humor, knowing that God is in control, working all things out and He has a plan for my life. I have much to be thankful for. ~ Thank you for sharing this with us. ~ FlowerLady

    ReplyDelete
  13. This really was the perfect time for this post. I have some things going on causing stress. Now I'm wondering if I can find the joy in it all. I think I can! Enjoy your day! Go Chiefs!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I do love this Bren. Every word is so true. I am grateful for you and your always inspiring posts. They always lift me up and turn me around. Blessings, dear one. Have a beautiful day and week ahead.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Brenda, that was beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Brenda, I love all of these points and your experience with implementing them into your life. Excellent! And guess what I've been doing this week? Organizing stacks of paperwork of possible posts that never got published! It was so bad that I finally carried everything to my large dining table and sat down there to try to sort them into categories. Of course that doesn't even count computer files and documents. That's for another day, and the files of pictures. As you said, some expired. Years of blogging since 2012 tell me now that many of them would be boring to anyone but myself. Some things I stuck into the piano bench that holds my years of journals, something for my kids to perhaps enjoy some day or chuck altogether. And I still have bookshelves in my office holding books I've read with post it notes sticking up in them with what I thought were little gems I'd share some murky day in a future blog post. Our intentions outweigh the time we have available, don't they? Someone does have to make the beds, do the laundry and cook dinner, right?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Love your posts, Brenda. They are so refreshing and good for the soul! Hope your week is beyond blessed, my friend. Susan

    ReplyDelete
  18. What great thoughts with which to start the week! Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I love this post Brenda, thank you!!
    I do a Joy List Monday ~ a weekly ritual ~ a reminder to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces that make life magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day.
    xx oo
    Thank You for this post!!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Brenda, that sure stirs the embers! The quote of Frankl is the one which so affected Steven Covey that it changed his life! Thank you for sharing such compelling word soldiers, truth soldiers which we can CHOOSE to employ to keep us marching and whistling as we do so.

    ReplyDelete

To My Beautiful Readers,

Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same. ~ Franz Peter Schubert

Thank you so much for leaving your 'footprint' here in my comment box. I do appreciate you taking a moment to share your thoughts today.

Brenda xo