Throughout my travels across South America I have observed tourists who happened to be on vacation or holiday, many of them complaining about the most menial hinderance or mishap which I believe mirrors the way many people live their day to day lives. It was supposed to be sunny and perfect but on a rainy day they feel cheated. Like why me? Why us? Of course this would happen to us…on our vacation…what the shit.
I feel as though some people have this mentality when it comes to life in general…I know I did for years…I would get upset when something wouldn’t work out just right…with a cherry on top. I would expect absolute perfection with a drive home from work, running errands, preparing a meal or managing a major project at work…no hiccups allowed, no mistakes to be made, no accidents…then everything would fall just perfectly into place. If it didn't…if it didn’t all work out just easy peasy then obviously the world was working against me, some external force greater than humankind was out to ruin my very existence…make my errand run filled with mishaps…the forces of nature must have banned together, creating a coercion of negative energy which would work against my every effort to complete any task I needed to check off my list. This “Let’s screw up Joe’s day” force would trigger to create an accident in the one day I just couldn’t be late. My shirt, my only tuxedo shirt which I need for the black tie event came back with a button missing, un…freaking…believable. Of course this would happen…of course the manufacturer would print the image backwards for the window display two days before corporate comes to visit…I’m screwed.
These things used to get under my skin and at times ruin my day or even worse. I feel that I have gained more than my fair share of life experience over the last 3-4 years and I have obviously come to expect “bumps in the road”, hiccups and other mishaps to occur because I have learned that life is not perfect. We are flawed in believing our existence is also flawed…subconsciously we believe that our lives should be perfect…but they’re not, they never were and they never will be…Life, unfortunately, is not without hardship…there are ups and downs which are to be expected but when the precious & amazing moments occur…when we accomplish an enormous goal which took so much time, effort and sacrifice…when a special occasion like a wedding, anniversary or birth of a child occur…or when a person enters our life leaving us immeasurably changed forever, these mountain tops guide us through the valleys and on to better times. Over time I believe the valleys begin to fill up and things just aren’t so bad…why am I stressing over the little stuff? As they say, the sweet doesn’t taste as sweet without the bitter and in my opinion it’s not the bitter moments in life that create all of our hardship…it’s how we react to these trying times. These arduous moments and chapters WILL occur, but they won’t overpower and control us unless we let them. We are in control and even more-so is the fact that God is in control.
I think back on so many wonderful, happy, funny and extremely powerful moments with Jessica when she was at her weakest…close to the end…now that I recall. Times she whispered a joke in my ear that made me drop to my knees and laugh out loud…dancing to the bathroom when I guided and helped her walk…our nicknames for each other which we never shared with anybody…laying next to each other sleeping peacefully after an impossible day…and most importantly the moments our love for each other and for our Heavenly Father overcame our fear. We were in control…scared at times and confident at others but we held our heads up high and took on our difficult times with vigor, grace, confidence, faith & love…I have to constantly remind myself of this when life feels
impassable,confusing and daunting…I have to remind myself of who I am…of who we were. I have to remind myself when my hope dwindles and my unwavering faith is shaken that this horribly bitter chapter, will…God willing…be the most bitter of my life and I need to lean on the sweet times that I was fortunate enough to share with my sweet wife Jessica to push me through this.
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