Life Captured Project- Day 9

I confess I didn't read much today. My day was spent chasing after kids, feeding hungry mouths, cleaning up after numerous meals, changing diapers, doing laundry, baking, attempting to play with the kids, cleaning up toys, disciplining, prepping music and notes for the dance classes I taught tonight and lots of other fun things like that. I haven't been very good at reading inspirational literature lately and I think I need to make a change in that department. I find words can be very powerful and I really enjoy taking the time to sit down with a good book, an inspirational blog, my scriptures or whatever source of good words I can find. So mental note to self: find (make) time to read if only a little bit each and every day.

Today I'm supposed to share with you something I  read that made an impression on me. But since I have read only my ballet notes and syllabus books so far I'll share something that I glimpsed last night when I was in a somewhat sour mood and needed to be lifted up.

This little jem is on the sidebar of a lovely friend's blog (she knows who she is.) I've noticed this on her page before because it just sort of jumps out at you with its bright colors. It's like a happy rainbow waiting to put a smile on your face. Reading this quote did two things for me last night. 1: It made me feel entirely selfish and ungrateful for all the blessings in my life and 2: It made me stop feeling sorry for myself and sad and depressed about all the challenges that I am facing and immediately made me think of some of the great things that I do have in my life. 

The fact of the matter is that we all face really REALLY HARD stuff in life. Some of us deal with very sick children, some of us struggle financially for our whole lives, some of us deal with death, some of us deal with disability, some of us are victims of awful crimes that force us into a lifetime of recovery, some of us have so many kids we think we might lose our minds, some of us can't have kids, some of us have stressful jobs that take us away from our families, others can't find good work and have to work at Walmart just to pay the bills. Some people seem to have all the luck in life while others seem to have nothing. 

When it boils down to it we all have or will have something hard to face at one point or another during the course of our lives. When things are taken away from us or we can't have what we want we are left to figure out what it is that we truly value in life. We are left to see the beauty of the blessings that we do have and what face will we put forward when we are hit with a torrential downpour. 

Will we cry and lament the unfairness of the world or see the beauty and rejoice in what we have been given? Will we realize in our moments of despair, that there is still a bright and colorful rainbow to lift our spirits? Even when we feel everything has been taken away from us- friends, family, work, money- whatever the case may be we still have our spirits, our souls. There is always something bright and beautiful to rejoice in. 

I want to feel that there is nothing lacking in my life and take the whole world by storm. I want the world to belong to me. This coming year I am going to try very hard to stay positive and uplifted each and every day. I have a natural tendency in my character to become easily brought down and left feeling sad and depressed (I try to hide this so maybe you didn't know this about me) but I'm going to do my hardest to find the beauty in each and every day, even when I don't understand what I am dealing with. 

Here's to a year of happiness and joy!

Jordan 

(Side note: I'm loving this blogging challenge, it's already helping me to get a better perspective on things)