Tuesday, April 10

Day 101: Five Things and Five Minutes

The good news is that nothing is really ever as it seems. Sometimes I look at a person's life, be it a friend, relative or just someone I admire, and I think that they have it all. Their life is perfect. Perfectly packaged with all of the things I think I want or am envious of. They have a great job, they are physically fit and make it seem effortless, they seem to have everything within their grasp.

But then if I were to take a deeper look into their life I might see a person who has grown estranged from their family, a person who has a difficult time enjoying an evening of eating pizza and ice cream because they are so obsessed with having the perfect body that they cannot let loose for one evening, or a person whose perfect life is merely the life that they think will win them approval and not the life that makes them happy.

Who cares if I cannot fit into my skinny pants? What are skinny pants anyway? Skinny pants for me are just fat pants for someone else. It is all a matter of circumstance. If it were the end of the world I would survive longer with my extra "energy" reserves. Ha. Who am I kidding? But seriously, skinny pants, the right job, or choosing pizza or salad for dinner are not life altering issues. Having a close relationship to my family and being able to relax and enjoy myself are life altering issues.

Just because your neighbor appears to have it all doesn't mean that they do. Take a few minutes to write down five things that would do in the next week if you could just choose things that make you happy. Here are my five:

Eat chocolate cake
Get a job in a flower shop
Play hooky from work one day and just go window shopping
Spend an entire evening reading a book and eat cereal for dinner instead of cooking
Walk to work in the mornings, even if it means arriving late

Take another five minutes to be thankful for all of the small things that give your life joy and meaning. And yes, your electric toothbrush counts.

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