The easy things aren’t always the right things.

“When I was in elementary school my parents told me, it didn’t matter what I did when I grew up, so long as it made me happy.  “Happiness is the whole point of life”, my father said.  “But it doesn’t always come easy.  Your mother loves to help people in need, so she became a psychiatric nurse.  I love reading, writing, and poetry, so I became an English teacher.  We both find happiness in the hard work we do each day.”

A few years later when I was in junior high, my sixth-grade homeroom teacher put me in detention for “being difficult.”  She went around the classroom and asked each student what they wanted to be when they grew up.  When she got to me, I told her I wanted to be happy.  She told me I was missing the whole point of the question.  I told her she was missing the whole point of life.

Perhaps my pre-adolescent, smart-aleck response deserved the repercussions.  Perhaps my young mind was oversimplifying some necessary complexities.  Lesson learned I suppose.  But, I’ve still never forgotten the significance of my dad’s wisdom—especially his point about finding happiness in hard work.

As human beings, we somehow get used to the fantasy that life should be easier than it is.  Regardless of what we choose to do “when we grow up,” we subconsciously expect our chosen path to have very few detours, interruptions, and inconveniences.  And oftentimes we wait around for those detours, interruptions, and inconveniences to take care of themselves.

A good case in point: I was picking up a few items at a small CVS store this morning when an elderly man with a guide dog came in.  He walked to the aisle with the greeting cards, picked up a card, held it up extremely close to his face, and desperately squinted his eyes to read it.  A couple other shoppers glanced at his squinting expression as they passed but didn’t stop to help him.  Just as I began to walk over, a big burly guy in a Harley Davidson jacket walked up and asked him if he needed assistance reading, and then proceeded to read him about a dozen different greeting cards out loud until the elderly man smiled and said, “That’s perfect! My wife will love that one!”

As the elderly man checked out at the register, I walked up to the big burly guy and said, “I admire your kindness.”

“Thank you, sir,” he replied with a smile. “Lately, I’ve just been letting my soul guide me.  I’m actually in a bit of a hurry right now, so it would have been much easier to let that man struggle or let someone else help him, but my soul knows the easy things in life aren’t always the right things.”[1]

[1] http://www.marcandangel.com/2018/09/02/stop-waiting-one-lesson-too-many-people-learn-too-late/#more-5887

    Until next time, remember,

• You are not alone.

• You are not your circumstances.

• You have everything within you to live a purpose-filled life.