Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
Life presents many choices, the choices we make determine our future. Catherine Pulsifer
Time spent in nature rejuvenates us. We were invited to the reception of a wedding that took place a year ago. They will be off on their honeymoon in Greece in about a week. With the happy couple will be her grandparents that haven’t been back to Greece in seventy years.
We all have had it hit over our head with the sledgehammer of a worldwide pandemic that life is uncertain and if there are things we want or need to do, to get to it.
We were invited up to a cottage on Saturday and followed the GPS which took us on a scenic tour, but we arrived at our destination. A cabin nestled in the woods with a huge granite rock at its doorstep, and a wide screened-in porch on the back facing the river allowed us to watch a parade of boats cross the river, all shapes and sizes all day long.
What a lovely spot to spend the day and we didn’t get one mosquito bite although they were some of the most giant mosquitoes we’ve ever seen. When we were outside we sat on a deck in the sun and bugs and mosquitoes didn’t bother us. We had a lovely day talking and laughing with friends and the GPS on the way home took us the short way to the highway.
Friends, food, and laughter in a beautiful setting, what a wonderful way to spend a day. When we don’t spend time in nature we don’t realize how much we miss it. Finding balance in our lives is not easy and it is easy to focus on what needs to be done so much that other facets of our lives are neglected. We may be going through stages of our life we don’t like. Not seeing eye-to-eye may seem like we live with contrarians.
The hardest decisions in life are not between good and bad or right and wrong, but between two goods or two rights. Joe Andrew
We’ve never seen eye-to-eye on everything, that is why we have opinions, but it seems opinions have become more contentious, as the sides we take have become more us against them. Instead of realizing we don’t see eye-to-eye on a small part of a big subject, we are talking as if we don’t see eye-to-eye on anything.
It seems we used to be flexible about agreeing on the big picture but not on all the small details, now we are discussing small details like they are the big picture. Perhaps I am not correct, but it seems to me everything is causing us to become more polarized in our views, us against them is rearing its head more as we settle into armed camps of believing we don’t all want a good society even if we don’t all agree what makes a good society. We think our mistakes, missteps, and errors in thought are understandable, but we can’t understand others’ mistakes, missteps, and errors in thinking and judgment.
Where is the idea that other people mean well even if they are misguided? Why do we now have to believe in “Science” but only one kind of science, and not the other views that are questioning hypotheses and assumptions? We might find in one conversation we are on the right side, and with another group of friends or family, we are on the wrong side of their thinking.
Maybe to get along we just nod and smile without interjecting our opinion. We are blessed to live in a country where we can have dissenting opinions and for the most part, we all get along finding common ground on what is most important.
I sometimes think we live in “Camelot” and hope we can continue to live in peace and prosperity. Even as I say it I know prosperity is not evenly distributed and we have issues with homelessness, and other social ills we don’t know how to deal with.
Life is not getting easier for most people, but looking backward we may think life was easier for people when it really wasn’t. We don’t know how hard it was keeping families together in the past? Relationships were still fraught with hurt feelings and misunderstandings. Keeping things together, putting a roof over a family’s head, and providing the necessities have always been a struggle for some and easier for others.
Our view of life is not the only view. We might think we should all be seeing life the same, but how can we when we have different circumstances, challenges, beliefs, and perspectives? We can’t walk in another person’s shoes so we will never see things exactly how they see things, and they will never see things exactly how we see things, and we need to be okay with that.
Do we want to control others when we can only control ourselves? If only they thought right or did things our way, life would be better for all of us. Making decisions and living with the consequences is how we all have to live. Better decisions equal better consequences, but we don’t always know which is which.
We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions. If we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals. Stephen Covey
Sometimes it’s the smallest decision that can change your life forever. Keri Russell
Consider every choice carefully, no matter how small, for it will affect the bigger decisions you make. Jim George
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