Guest Author - Deanna Joseph
I was in a rather long, slow moving line, at the bank recently. There was a woman standing behind me, and she was in a rather chatty mood. In fact, she would pretty much talk to whoever would listen. She commented about the weather, and I happened to look back at her and smile and nod. This, in her eyes, opened the door to start up a conversation with me.
"My business has just been suffering so in this economy. I clean houses you know, and when the economy is bad, house cleaning is the first thing to go." She rolled her eyes and waved her checks in the air in a dramatic gesture.
I smiled and made some sort of "mmmm" sound.
She started rubbing her neck. "I had to go the chiropractor the other day. I hurt my neck so bad, I couldn't even move it. I was in excruciating pain! It was terrible. And I hated that I had to pay money to feel better, but what are you going to do?" she rolled her head in another dramatic gesture.
"I love my chiropractor," I said, "and anytime I can go I'm thankful." I flipped through my own deposit to make sure I'd written everything accurately.
"Oh this line is so long. Could it MOVE any slower? Well, as long as I get home in time for NASCAR I guess I'll be fine. I nearly cut my finger off the other day you know." She held out her finger, neatly wrapped in a wee band-aid, for me to examine. "I have the worst luck!" she said, waving her finger at me.
I looked at her and said "Well, it was pretty lucky that your chiropractor could fix your neck, and it was pretty lucky that you didn't actually cut your finger off. It sounds like you are pretty lucky to me." I grinned and turned around.
She didn't say another word the next 10 minutes we stood in line.
I know that things can be difficult, and that a lot of people are going through tough times. And sometimes all we can be happy about is what is not happening to us. If we didn't run over a group of senior citizens in the crosswalk, aren't projectile vomiting, and our computer hasn't blinded us with its Maktar Stealth Ray, then we are actually doing pretty good!
We attach conditions to happiness, and decide we can't be happy until we loose that weight, get that perfect job, the perfect house, spouse and hairstyle. But then we are making someone else responsible for our happiness, and when we do this, they will always let us down.
There is always going to be something to complain about. We'll always have to deal with the economy, health issues, and personal crisis. What helps us to rise above hard times is our ability to see the silver lining in spite of the difficulties we face. Sometimes we just have to decide to be happy anyway.
