Gratitude--Entry 13

This week has been a wonderful experience.  Sad, too, as I have learned that someone I worked with at my first job through high school and friend who later had become a successful entrepreneur, passed away yesterday.  It really made me reflect on what I am truly thankful for in my life at this time.  President Thomas S. Monson said, "We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues."  These past couple of weeks have been very trying on me physically, emotionally and spiritually.  I realize now that I wasn't being truly grateful for everything I already have in my life.  This talk by President Monson, and even the Visiting Teaching message this month have really helped bring me back into focus on everything I needed to help me through this tough time.  I am truly thankful for the Lord and the ability that He has given all of us to cast our burdens to Him and make it so that we can rely on Him and His help through all of our trials, no matter the size because no matter is too big for Him to help us through our hard times.

Another thing that I really loved learning this week came through the eCorner Video by Stan Christensen.  He talks about how to avoid the wrong job in our lives.  He says, "A lot of bad decisions come from unnecessary assumptions."  He even listed off assumptions such as: worrying about the resume and what other people will think of it, choosing a job that will only get you to the next level,  thinking we have to choose a career now, and specialization will get us on the best route to success.  Maybe this is exactly why I want to be a published author, as well as run my own business in the future.  In my studies of learning the craft and art of creative writing, it's almost like you're doing everything he says TO DO, and ignoring everything NOT TO DO.  A good author doesn't worry about the resume--they are telling their story through another means.  I see the author's resume shown through their stories they have produced, an author is looking at getting sales-yes, but they aren't truly looking for the job that will take them to the next level, they chose a career--but it is filled with multiple career enhancing and learning opportunities, and they become "specialists" in everything.  I read from one author once that he enjoyed writing so much more than anything else because he was able to become an expert in whatever he was writing about at that time.  As an writer, you are continually studying and learning and enhancing everything about you.  Many authors keep their current careers for stability, but they truly know what makes them happy.  I've seen so many writers that have such great gratitude for what they have in their life, and who they have in their life.  For this example I have in my life, I am grateful for those to look up to, and I am thankful for everyone in my life right now and for their support.

eCorner Video: Avoid the Wrong Job by Stan Christensen
An Attitude of Gratitude by President Thomas S. Monson

The Pursuit of Happiness--Entry 11

With this week being Thanksgiving, then a day full of madness in greed of shoppers, I found this article, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, the best thing to read this week.  I have been having a hard time during the holiday season these past couple of years because our family is in Utah and we are in Illinois.  Travelling standby (since my husband is an airline pilot--it's a good perk) is getting harder through the company every month in the past few months, we are for sure not going to Utah for Christmas this year.  We can never go for Thanksgiving because we wouldn't make it out, and if we did, we wouldn't make it home.  We have traveled for Christmas three out of the five years living in Illinois, and this year, we just can't do it.  Our main support system lives in Utah.  Our friends we have known for years, and our family all lives there.  Trying to even Skype or contact our families through a phone call is impossible lately with them all gathered together and us sitting in our living room checking for their updates on Facebook--just to feel like we are a part of them still.  In this article, it talks a lot about our support system and being grateful.  These were two things that stood out to me.  

"Deep loving relationships, with a capacity for gratitude, forgiveness, and sharing are far more important than accomplishments." (pg 5)  

"We live in relationship with others and we need to belong.  We need others to complete us." (pg 11)

To have deep, fulfilling relationships with family, friends, our spouse, our children, and our grandchildren throughout our life is something that I see as fulfilling our life.  It reminds me of The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickins where Scrooge sees his future.  He sees that there was a man that died and nobody cared that he died.  They just wanted his things, and they were so happy to be free of the miser.  Scrooge couldn't believe it could be him because he thought he had relationships with the people in the future.  He thought they respected him.  But as he came to realize that it was his own death that made the people happy, it turned him around.  It made him realize that money isn't what makes people happy and grateful.  It is the people in their lives, the relationships they have with each other that make people the happiest and most satisfied.  There are other examples of stories like this.  The Grinch is one.  He thought taking away Christmas would rip the Who's apart.  It didn't because they had each other and the Spirit of Christmas lived through them and their love for each other.

If we want to be happy in our lives, we need to focus on those people who are in our lives at this time and be thankful for them.  Be happy and thankful for what they help us to be.  The people in our lives truly shape us into who we will be in the future days, months, and years.  I'm sure that the people I look up to and admire, look up to me for certain things about me that I bring to our relationship.  I am thankful that I will be with my children for Christmas, and I am thankful for friends that act like our family here in Illinois and welcome us into their homes for the holidays.  I am also thankful for a wonderful, supportive husband who wants my dreams to come true and pushes me to move forward in them.

I hope to always remember how thankful I am for the people in my life.  Even if I can't always be with my extended family, there are those around me that will welcome me in.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness Acton Guide