For most of us emotions including sadness and anger are little more than a thought or two away. The same can be said for happiness and joy. We all have a store of bitter experiences. And then there are those things we recall that warm us and make us smile. A life lived is not a life free of emotion. Memories are a mix of light and dark experiences.
But we live in the present, not the past. Today will come with its own blend of positive and negative. Many of the things that happen around and to us are beyond our control. Unexpected, unpredicted and most definitely uninvited, bleak events and encounters can spring from the shadows and leave us bewildered and unhappy. Good things can be every bit as random.
We all have the opportunity to take whatever comes our way and use it to write our own life story. We get to choose. Our life can be miserable and empty or it can be happy and fulfilling. Perception and reality can be poles apart. As individuals we decide the distance; we make our own selections. The consequences are ours and ours alone.
With choice, however, comes effort. Wishful thinking is insufficient. If we want our life to be better than it is then we have to work on it. There are days when the effort expended can be particularly tiring…when what we do appears to get us no closer to what we want. There are other days when the sun shines brighter.
Life is very much what we make of it. Most people want to live in peace and harmony. We can choose to be the person we want to be…we can become that person. We can influence those around us but we are unable to choose for them or live their lives for them.
Gary Bentley Counselling 