End of the story

I went to watch a play today with my first grade class. Between telling them to be quiet and listening to them laugh hysterically at the butt of a baboon costume, I didn't really get to watch a lot of the play. However, there were certain parts I did catch and these parts had me thinking about the true message the play was attempting to get across.

The young boy in the story was on a journey to bring back the water supply to the world. He was chosen by some higher power to be the one to bring back the water supply. Throughout the play his journey brings him to collect certain tokens in order to find the heart of the sun. Once he finds the heart of the sun, he learned he needs to dive into this giant tree in order to complete his journey. At first he is hesitant and he asks his community leader what will happen to him. The community leader simply responds that he does not know. That part of the story has not been written yet.

That line really got me thinking. The end of our stories have not been written. We do not know what will happen tomorrow, or next week, or next year. However, one aspect the play touched upon was the fact that the young boy had a choice as to the direction the rest of his story would go. We are all faced with decisions and I think often times we neglect to see the importance of some of these decision. By making these decisions we are writing the next chapter in our lives.

I've been struggling lately with a certain chapter in my story. To be honest, I kept concerning myself with how other peoples stories were going. I forgot that regardless of how their stories go, I have the power to control mine. Just like the little boy in the fable I have a choice.

We all have a choice. We all have the power to shape our own stories. Sometimes we just don't realize it

Anger

Anger never solved anything. Anger never made you feel better. Anger never made you successful.

Many people could disagree with these statements. There are many people out there who feel anger is a productive. I am not one of those people.

I had one of those moments last night where a simple conversation profoundly effects the way you view yourself and your life. I had this conversation with someone who has known me for a while now and had the urge to tell me his philosophy on life. He simply sat down and told me "anger does not get you anywhere." He was 100 % accurate.

We all get angry. Whether we want to or not, it happens. It usually raises our heartbeat, increased our blood pressure and stresses us out even more. When we act impulsively based on anger, the end result usually isn't what we had hoped. Anger destroys friendships, ruins families, and makes enemies. It is an emotion that can destroy us, as I noticed it was destroying me.

I get angry over things I cannot control in my life. I get angry over people who are late, people who slack off, people who complain, people who brag, etc. Not only do I get angry, but I let these people impact my life by bothering me beyond all ends. I suddenly realized after the conversation I had last night that I cannot control how people act. If someone wants to be late, then they will be late. If someone wants to slack off, then they will slack off. If someone wants to complain, then they will complain. It is life. It isn't fair. People will always do things we do not understand, do not agree with, and do not enjoy. It is life and in life you can only worry about your own actions. You can only control how you act and how you feel. Why get angry over the actions of other people? One day they will pay for being late, or pay for slacking off, or pay for complaining. Letting the anger for these people impact your day, even if it's for a minute, is a waste of your time. Let it go. You are who you are and they are who they are. You cannot control that.

Anger will never solve a problem.

Best Laid Plans

Sometimes we make a plan. We have a perfect line between where we are and where we want to be. Many times our plan does not go the way we had expected. I will admit I am suffering from a plan that isn't exactly going the way I had envisioned it. However, I realized after some heavy thinking that maybe my plan isn't as far off the path as I had imagined.

I'd prefer to keep the actual plan to myself, but I will tell you that from the start it didn't go the way I expected. I had, in my opinion, done all that I had needed to do in order for the plan to go smoothly, but right from the start it was out of whack. However, regardless of where my path is going I can still see the goal at the end of the tunnel. I always just assumed that my plan was the best plan in order to help me accomplish what I need to accomplish. I suddenly realize that maybe there were other paths I could take that could all end with the same result. Maybe I had missed an extra variable along the way. Maybe my plan wasn't the right plan.


We all set plans and we all realize that they often do not go according to plan. Yet what if they are going according to plan. What if the path we're on, though it might not be the path we expected, is actually the right path for what we hope to accomplish. Often times we forget that there is more then one way to get to a destination. We'd all like to take the fastest route, but we forget that sometimes the back roads can be more scenic, more beautiful, more of an adventure.

There are multiple ways to get to your goals. Trust the path you're on.

The cornerstone

I sat in church this morning and heard a statement. The stone that the builders rejected became the cornerstone. It was used as my words of advice today and I don't think many people understood why. You see, I couldn't help think about how many times people have been rejected in their lives. I'm not talking about being rejected from a date or a job (although that could work I guess). I'm talking about the number of times people have failed, have been told they don't belong, or have been told they couldn't do something. We are the stone that can sometimes be rejected, but we are also the cornerstone in so many ways.

I began thinking on my run today about learning to ride my bike. I saw a father pushing his daughter and it made me think about this statement as well. How many times did I fall off the bike before I actually learned to ride? I'm willing to guess a lot. Then I began to think about learning how to walk. How many times did I fall? Plenty of times. Yet you see, I never gave up. If I had given up I wouldn't know how to ride a bike, or even how to walk. Suddenly failing seemed so simple. Suddenly I realized how many times we've all gotten back up after falling.

I think in the end I learned that we are stronger then we give ourselves credit for. I failed this weekend. Flat out failed. I also let that failure eat away at me for the past two days. It took some enlightenment today to finally realize that I've failed many times before in my life and I will fail many more times. In truth, we all will. Yet I've also overcome those failures many many times. I've overcome them so much that to this day I cannot remember how long it took me to overcome then. I just have the evidence that I did. We all have the evidence that we did.

Just because we are rejected doesn't mean we can't become the cornerstone. Our failures do not and should not define us. We have evidence of our successes all around us. If we overcame failure then, we can overcome it again.

We are stronger then we think.