Light, Love, Hope

Everyone has a favorite something. It may be a person, a food, a time of day, place, or situation. A favorite is something that makes us happy, that makes us feel good.

I have many such favorites. There are several places I consider favorites that I never get tired of visiting. There are certain times of the day such as sunrise and sunset because of how beautiful they can be. The smell of a light Spring rain. A walk in the Woods.

Many of us have chocolate as a favorite or Mac and Cheese. I always kid around with nurses when I go to doctor appointments and get the usual list of questions. Do you drink? No. Do you do smoke. No. Do you do drugs? No. I tell them my only vice is one of my favorite things… popcorn.

A favorite thing can turn a truly bad day around and make you feel good. That is where a favorite person can come into play. Just hearing their voice can help push away that cloud hanging over you.

So, when things are not going well for you, indulge in one of your favorites.

If recent years have taught us anything, it is the threat of losing someone we love in an instant is ever-present.  From school shootings to Covid-19, our safety is not guaranteed.

We send our children to school with a hug, kiss, and “Have a nice day, I love you …” not knowing if they will return home that evening with the way the world is today.

Fear struck upon learning of the Covid-19 virus, we scurry off to the nearest pharmacy for a vaccine, then another, and another.  We are seeking guaranteed protection from this virus.  Yet, many still fall ill.

Then there are those set against the vaccine altogether for fear of what it will do to the human race.  Others speak of population control via the vaccine, and those who took it pray this isn’t the end result.

Even meeting people on the internet carries a certain threat as we spoke about here a few days ago.  However, the greatest “takeaway” message here is NOT to live in fear.  Be aware, be informed, and take action, yes!  All of those!  But don’t live in fear.

Instead, make memories!

Share laughter, even heartache, and pain, with people you KNOW love you and have your best interest in their hearts.

Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there for fear of being turned away or pushed aside.  Sometimes, you have to take risks for the most beautiful things to occur in life!  Had I allowed myself to stay sheltered, I would not have met the wonderful people I have in my life right now!  Truly, I would have missed out on lifetime friendships and the most precious memories we made together!

Take the pictures, participate in the silliness, and throw your head back in the biggest belly laugh possible.

Live!

Enjoy life!

Find YOUR people!

Putting yourself out there carries some risks, yes, but ahhh, the beautiful memories we would have missed if we hadn’t.  I’m satisfied with the choices I made and the results in a billion memories and more to reflect back on, with more yet to be made!

It can be interesting how a person reacts to a problem. Some people will shy away and do anything to avoid it hoping it will go away. Others will hit it head on to resolve it and may just cause more issues. There seems to seldom be an in between reaction.

When I run into a problem in life, I am the kind of person that sits and listens before deciding on how to handle things. The Lounge developed into an interesting problem for me in regards to the relationships in my life.

Everyone has an opinion. As time passed in the Lounge and relationships formed, I was being given opinions by people inside and outside of the situation. As I think back, if I would have taken the advise of certain people, I would have walked away from the Lounge and my life would have been completely different. They saw what was going on in the Lounge in some aspects as a problem for me that I needed to walk away from.

My way of handling these conflicting opinions was to divide my life into sections. In each section were certain people and I never let the sections meet. You could say I lived multiple lives. It probably wasn’t the best choice, but it seemed to work. Keeping the opinions of people I cared about in separate buckets kept me from feeling awkward and kept me from being quizzed and having to explain my actions.

Now that those people are gone, I don’t have that separation to deal with anymore. Whether or not what I did was the correct way to handle it, I still don’t know. That only thing I know if that it kept me from hearing, “You need to get away from that situation”, comment over and over again.