Lesson #45
Life isn’t tied with a bow but it’s still a gift.
A multicoloured, many faceted gift. Treasure it, live it, love it.
To quote Terry Goodkind’s Sword Of Truth series of books:
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What are these Lessons In Life? – See my first post here to find out.
Lesson #44
Yield
You can’t be right all the time and sometimes it is more important to be wrong, or even give in even when you are right.That’s how relationships work. You yield.
A hard lesson, but possibly the most important.
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What are these Lessons In Life? – See my first post here to find out.
Lesson #43
No matter how you feel – get up, dress up and show up.
I have cried pathetically many times before events I have attended because I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to dress up. I didn’t want to paint on a smile and talk to people. I just wanted to stay home.
I didn’t.
I got poshed up, took a deep breath, fought out that smile and turned up. And nine times out of ten I loved it.
So get up and go – it might be better than you think.
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What are these Lessons In Life? – See my first post here to find out.
Lesson #42
The best is yet to come.
So let it come. Go with the flow, follow where life leads and remember that tomorrow might just be your day. But even then there might be something better waiting for you in the future.
Who knows, sit back and enjoy the ride. And love with all your heart.
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What are these Lessons In Life? – See my first post here to find out.
Lesson #41
Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
My best friend recently bought a house with her boyfriend. It’s a beautiful house with high ceilings and patio doors and a back garden.
I recently got a council flat on my own with the Smalls. It doesn’t have a garden, the floors are wonky and the skirting boards are a total mess.
I love Liberty’s house but I love my house too. They are nothing like on the same level but my house is just what I need right now and it is a place I can call home. I could be horribly envious but it would be a waste of time and a pointless strain on our friendship.
More often than not envy happens over petty things and it can make a right mess of everything. Usually you have an alternative that is just as good or, if you want it enough, then you can work for it and get it yourself off your own back, increasing your feeling of satisfaction in the end.
And one day I’m sure I will have my own house. It’s just not my time yet.
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What are these Lessons In Life? – See my first post here to find out.
Lesson #40
If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
Yet another case of better the devil you know. Everyone worries about different things – but everyone worries. When it comes right down to it, everyone would rather be worried about what they know.
Life is tough, but it’s meant to be. Experience is how we learn. Problem solving is how we develop. Even the hardest thing to get through is worth it in the end because you come out with a whole new perspective on things and who knows what else? You find love in the darkest places sometimes – even if it’s simply a stranger on the street providing you with an answer to something.
Sometimes I think there are issues in my life that are impossible to conquer or change but when I think about it I don’t mind them so much because through them I am learning how to be myself, who I am, what I am capable of and what I love. I might spend the odd day in a useless heap of despondent tears or angrily storming round cursing the universe but ultimately I am learning and I’m grateful for that.
Lesson #39
Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
Even if it’s just a walk round the block or to the shop to buy a bar of chocolate. I spent an awful lot of time cooped up inside when my depression first hit and it made the world very small and very dark. I didn’t realise this until I dragged myself out to the shop and then the world had been so far away for so long it was huge and scary and intimidating. But I felt like I could breathe.
Now I try and get outside every day, even when it’s raining and even if it is literally just for one minute. It’s worth it to share a smile with a passing neighbour, to hear the flurry of wings as a starling shoots past or get the whiff of approaching rain in the air.
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What are these Lessons In Life? – See my first post here to find out.
Lesson #38
All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
It doesn’t matter if you won the lottery or got employee of the year six years running. Nobody will care if they can’t remember your name or your smile.
Look back at your life, the people you remember best, the people you spend the most time with are the people you love. Those people probably remember you too.
Love hurts. It’s not easy loving anyone – your children, your parents, your pets, your best friend, your partner. It’s unbearably hard, it tears you to pieces and it makes you cry but it is worth every tiny ounce of pain because in return you get loved back. What is so great about that? The warmth, the laughter, the smiles, the security, the excitement, the healing, the comfort and the quietness.
Love because that is all that really matters. Love with abandon. Love gently. Love recklessly. Love with ferocity and fire. Love carelessly. Love like your heart is breaking. Love tentatively.
It doesn’t matter how you love, so long as you let yourself feel it and show it.
‘Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.’ 1 Corinthians 13, v13
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What are these Lessons In Life? – See my first post here to find out.
Lesson #37
Your children only get one childhood.
This doesn’t mean let them have every toy in the toyshop and every sweet on the shelf. It does mean let them grow up and learn in an environment of love, laughter and freedom. Let them explore their world themselves whenever it’s safe, let them play in the mud and go out in the rain. Play silly games with them and fill their hearts and heads with happy memories to talk about when they are older.
My children aren’t part of a perfect 2.4 family. They are growing up with their Mummy and Daddy in separate houses, separate lives – but they are growing up knowing they are loved to the moon and back and their lives are full of as many giggles as any other child’s.
They only get one childhood. I am giving them the best one I can and I like to think that I’m not doing too bad a job of it (with more than a little help from my friends and family, of course).
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What are these Lessons In Life? – See my first post here to find out.
