Everyday you wake up in the morning and you are facing a new challenge. The older you get the more challenges you have already seen and the circumstances of life have already taken it’s toll on you. As you reach out to make sense of the situation at hand, because at the time, it really makes no sense at all, you start to think about phrases and things that have been said to you or you have read over the years. Things that, at the time, seemed somewhat amusing, you look at with new eyes. You can finally see the deep- seated truth to the particular phrase.

Over the years and through times that were particularly challenging, I have found that certain phrases have stuck with me and these are things that I live my life by. Hopefully you will find these things just as enlightening.

For years my father would look at me and say, “you never see a hearse with a luggage rack”. When I first heard it I laughed a little, but the meaning was deeper. Another way of saying the same thing was “everyone leaves this world the same way they come into it”, yet another phrase I have heard all of my life. The concept was that you work all of the time and gather up everything you want and your life tends to revolve around work and “getting ahead”. Some-times you work so hard to get where you want to be, you forget about what real life is. One day you wake up and your life is two thirds over and you’ve neglected the things you should have given priority to, like friends, children and family. When you die, everything you worked for is secondary, you can’t take any of it with you, life is to be lived.

Ayn Rand wrote a book called “Atlas Shrugged’ back in the thirties. One phase in the book stood out for me above all others. This probably isn’t the exact phrase but the meaning is the same. “If there is something in life that you do not understand, recheck you premises. Everything has a logical conclusion.” This reminds you of a number of things. Firstly that you may not know all of the circumstances behind someone else’s behavior, or anyone’s, business or personal actions. If you did and you knew them as well as you thought, then their behavior would make sense. Maybe the premise you leaned on was thinking you knew them better than you did. Everyone faces their own challenges in life, chances are, you don’t know what those are, but rest assured there are reasons behind every action and every reaction, you just may not have all the facts.

“Everything important in life I learned from my dog”. Truth is I aspire to be half the person my dog thinks I am. The attitude and joy of life for a happy dog is to be admired. Dogs don’t hold grudges and their love is unconditional. No matter how horribly they had been treated, they will still forgive you and love you if you let them. No matter how old a dog gets or how long they live with you, they will still greet you at the door when you come home and are happy to see you. They understand the importance and sheer joy of laying in the grass in the summertime in the sun and taking a nap. They get endless hours of entertainment from a stuffed animal with a squeaker, electronics not required. Nothing beats a ride in the country or a walk through the woods, they enjoy the world as it is. Wealth and prosperity does not impress them, all they want are a few cookies, a pat on the head and someone that cares, and for that they will give their life for you.

“This too will pass”. This was one of my mother’s favorite sayings. No matter how hard things are at the time, how devastating something has affected you, it is not a permanent state of affairs. The only thing you can count on in life is that nothing stays the same. Good or bad, it does not matter, life is ever- changing. Things will sometimes be overwhelming. There are many times you will go through life and it will seem there is no way out or that your life is over. But remember, NOTHING stays the same. No one said it would be easy, and sometimes it is just putting one foot in front of the other trying for a more positive direction, and eventually the situation will change, just not always right away.

“Life is great, if you don’t weaken”. This was my grandmother’s saying. This was a way of telling me that I could do or could have anything, but you can’t let circumstances get you down and it may not be easy. Life can be difficult. She understood this better than anyone. But you can’t give up, you can’t quit. There is no option to quit or to stop. Life can be great, it can be adventuresome, it can be fun, it can be filled with love and laughter. The key to all of this is to persevere through the difficulties, through the losses and heartbreaks. Persevere through the times that are so dark, there seems to be no “light at the end of the tunnel”. You appreciate the good times, because of the hard times. If there was no darkness, you would not know what light was. Life can be good, but you can’t give up.

Everyone has ideas they have grown up with, things that inspire them and circumstances that have made them who they are. Your world is what you make of it. When given lemons, try to make lemonade. It’s often times just one foot in front of the other until a more positive path appears. After all, life is great, if you don’t’ weaken.