Something To Think About and Journal Notes

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

 

    To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a little bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - this is to have succeeded.

                                                                                Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

JOURNAL NOTES

    2024 is now in the past.  2025 embraces the present and the future.  I’m sure everyone has thought about it but it’s easy to be caught up in holiday festivities, as we should.  So today is the time to think about what we desire in 2025.  I have thought of this myself and I’m still thinking.  But along with all the things I need to do everyday just to be the kind of person I wish to be, I want to remember to smile and to laugh often.  I know there are going to be challenges in many aspects of life; it is important to put them in perspective and allow joy to come and laughter.  So many times we don’t have a choice about the things that happen to us, but we do have a choice about our reaction.  If we can train our brains to evaluate and filter the event, perhaps we can make even the most catastrophic bearable.  Choose to be happy.  When the heart hurts, close your eyes, look up at the sun and let it bathe you in the purity of its light.  It’s surprising how healing it can be.  As I have said before, I find nothing more soothing to a troubled heart than sitting on a sandstone boulder in the desert and letting the sun renew my body.  

  The Stoic word for happiness is “eudaimonia.”  Eudaimonia is achieved by doing the right thing.  Not what is expedient but what is right.  I believe we all have an innate knowledge of what is right and what is not.  Arete means excellence in all things, which includes not just our abilities, but our actions.  It is a philosophy I cannot live without and it is the path, for me, to peace and laughter.  Laughter and the ability to smile is infectious and can change a person’s day and demeanor even without words.  Be the purveyor of peace and happiness and show it to others.  This can be your gift to a stranger.  It is a connection to humanity so lacking in today’s world.  As we go forward in 2025, be kind to yourself.  Let simplicity be your guide and look for the miraculous in the smallest, minute pleasures.  Watch the spring robins as they listen for the earthworm in the soil.  Try to be the first to recognize the buds forming on the trees and tell anyone who will listen.  Plant a small garden and nurture it.  Watch the pollinators come to your garden and truly look at them; the color of their wings and their legs as they carry pollen from plant to plant.  Become a part, because you are.  We are all connected in this life, and that makes me smile.