LIFE IS STILL A GOOD MIX

 

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Was in a conversation with a dear old friend on the phone... which after a bit was leaning towards loneliness and depression. Hers, that is. She's been through a lot; had her share of ups and downs.. missed chances and successes. Just like the rest of us. Yet she feels that she could have done more and because she wasn't able to now feels remorse over it. She rattled away with things she would have wanted for her life.... the things she would have loved to do. I sensed that every 'should have' and 'would have' simply fed her loneliness and bitterness even more so
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I will not talk about her further; I've said much already. But her problem is one which we all are familiar with... or maybe have gone through in our own individual journeys, too. There is no perfect journey for any of us. We mess up some things along the way.... bungle up opportunities.... scare away good relationships and people.... at times refuse to grow.... at certain points get so puffed-up by our own perceived importance.... then too become humbled by truth.... made fools of ourselves.... and so much more. All those failed moments leave a bitter taste in the mouth and create in the heart a void.. a deep jarring hurting haunting void.
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I know; had my share.
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But we also have those sparkling wondrous breathtaking gems of joy. Those moments.... that lit up our faces... that bring the stars to our eyes... that shake up our whole being with laughter... that drench our souls with magnificent peace... that pour upon our lives the bountiful rewards of success and good fortune.... moments which make us feel good about ourselves, about the world, about people, about our life, about God!
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It's a good mix. No matter how you may think or feel to the contrary, it's still a good mix. Because if you look hard enough and pay close attention... you will understand that all of the bad made you grow and all of the good made you wrap up everything in one good bag. That's who you are. It's made you who you are.
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And if still that doesn't make you feel better.... read this quote -- "Don't look at how far you have to go, look at how far you have come." (Joyce Meyer)
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Also, remember that there is Somebody up there who is running the whole show of our lives. His objective is and always will be that we grow better in character, better not bitter.
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If we must work harder, let it be in learning how to see ourselves and our lives through the eyes of God.
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Take care, my friends; and God bless you, your family, and everything else good about you. And that is great!

WHERE DOES THIS EMPTINESS COME FROM

You can't blame others for your lonely life .... or blame things. Lonely comes from something within rather than without. You can't say you were not given a chance or a break to make life better for yourself. Because no one else can give that to you.. but you. Broken marriages, wayward children, tough luck, difficult struggles, jerks -- these don't just happen. It comes from somewhere. How do you deal with it? And before you point the finger on something outside of yourself, you better try looking inward. That's where everything starts.

It's an empty life when all you ever did was care for your own desires, wants, dreams, goals. Oh don't get me wrong, those things are fine -- essentials to living. But vigorously staying in it and closing your life to the rest of what life is all about is not going to get you there satisfied content and happy. If all you ever did was you, you will wake up one day alone, lonely and empty. Ask yourself then where does this emptiness come from?

HOW MUCH YOU CAN PUT INTO YOUR POT DEPENDS ON YOU

Do you know that you, me, and everybody else are nothing but pots? Yeah, pots! Or would you prefer to be called a vase or a vessel. Whatever it is that signifies a container meant to hold something, you are it. We all are. But I would like to use the word.. pot.. for this post.

Now what do we do with that? Let me tell you what I did with mine.


I am a pot...

When I was a baby I put in all that was about being a kid. Innocence, pleasure, delight, awe, fun, birthday cakes, ice cream, warm beds, doggies, and... mommy and daddy. It was great. Everything centered on me and I was everybody's priority. All I had to do was smile my cutest and throw in a tantrum or two to get them to my side pronto. That filled my baby pot.

Then I was ten. I couldn't be a baby anymore although I would have preferred to be as it seemed that mom and dad would always be coming at me to do this and do that. But school was great, had new friends, lots of fun things to do with them, was more aware of my newly found likes and dislikes. I was liking chocolate bars and cakes, coca-cola, nice teachers, field trips to museums, and always loved Sally and Susan -- my cute walking dolls. That filled my pot a notch higher.

Then they called me a teenager. Oh there was much in this new world that I never had before. I discovered that I loved the colors pink and blue, dresses, ladies bags and shoes, still loved cakes and ice cream, adored my first crush next door, enjoyed sketching and designing clothes, hoarded good books and magazines, delighted in poem-writing, and wrote for the high school paper. That filled my cup two notches higher. Plus up another with college that followed.

Then I found myself wearing size 7 high-heeled shoes walking it to a place called an office. I soon discovered that I was good at making tons of reports -- weekly, monthly, annually -- and did some travel, lectures and trainings for newly employees, reveled in office banter and camaraderie, events and more. That brought my pot fuller almost to the brim.

Then life turned more adult. What does that mean? Marriage, children, sickness, death, disappointment, sorrow, fear, anger, betrayal, change, trials, challenge, growing older, and all the stuff which makes an adult even wish in exasperation for the good years past. My pot now went on full and over.

So to be able to make sense out of all that... I thought I needed to do something. And fast. Or else so much would be lost. All of my history, all that made me, all for nothing if I let something like a full pot have its way. A further thought on the side, I can't and shouldn't get stuck with a full pot because there's still so much out there to learn, experience, enjoy, and live for. It's never over until it's over.

I emptied my pot.

... and by so doing have made room for insights, perceptions, retrospection, wisdom which I wouldn't have done being so involved in the living aspects of life. I needed to empty my pot so that new things could come in --- things which made sense of everything that I had gone through. It was there all along simply waiting in the wings for its turn to be inside my pot so that it could do its work.

This is where I believe that everything in our lives, no matter how tiny or insignificant it may be or maybe bigger than what we want it to be, is there for a reason. But reason which cannot reveal itself until or if we don't give it that needed room or space to do so.

Emptying our pot makes that possible. An empty pot invites it in. And this would give us all the treasure we may want or hope to acquire. This takes us higher to a better place of self and of understanding life, people, the world, and God. That's right. Whatever we want our day or our life to be, depends on how much we are willing to empty ourselves... and make room for more blessings.

One unknown writer puts it this way.... "We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want." --Anon.)

Yeah, how much you can put into your pot really depends on you.

God bless you.