I haven’t blogged for a few days. I started to feel like I had nothing new or interesting to report. At least, that’s what I told myself. It’s easy to let a discipline slip, especially if it’s something positive. Yeah, life is good. I got it from here. Besides, it can get very selfish. What good vibes can I acquire today, for myself? It eliminates the most important part of the equation: relationship. Relationship with the Person who’s made all this joy and goodness.
Most of us who’ve lived to the age of thirty have experienced some kind of trauma or failure – often while watching our friends experience success and happiness. Which leads us to think, God isn’t all that good – at least, not to me.
Look, life is indeed tragic. You’re not a cry-baby for noticing. In Greek myths and stories, the Fates decided what would happen to the hero, and the hero could not change whether or not he’d win his love or the war or even survive. But there were happy endings. A happy ending had to do with how the Hero changed on the inside.
So that’s why I need to discipline myself to also look for the joy. A mentor called it making a gratitude list. So that’s what I’ve got to keep doing. I think that’s what will change me on the inside. Happiness won’t just be about happy things happening to me.
“There is always one thing to be grateful for- that one is one’s self and not someone else.” Emily Dickinson
Bob Rubin