Reflections From a Country Girl

Yesterday I saw these two cars sitting side by side in a parking lot.  It appeared one of them was having troubles.  Jumper cables were in both men’s hands and they were obviously in hopes that the cables would provide the juice the car needed to get started.  “Dead battery.” I said to myself in passing.

When I came back by later the cars were gone so I assume the jumper cables did the job.  I don’t know about you, but I carry jumper cables in my car.  There is a reason why.  Many of us find that we need those jumper cables more than once along the way.  

It occurred to me that life is like that.  Sometimes you just need a little jump-start to get yourself going again.  

All of us have challenges in life.  They appear to make life more interesting, though I suspect that most of us don’t really want to have the sadder or more conflicted times anymore than we have to. After all, they can be very painful and numbing sometime, not to mention just draining our very soul. 

A professor once had my fellow classmates and I complete an exercise in class.  He instructed us to draw a line across the middle of a page of paper.  Beneath the line he said to write down all the things that have been a challenge for us.  “Everything.” he said.  Above the line, he suggested writing down some positive things about our lives and gave us a little time to complete the activity.  

An active discussion pursued.  

It seemed that most people had an easy time of writing those things below the line and a harder time coming up with the good things that were going on with them.  Interestingly enough, most had a relationship somewhere on the sheet…some above and some below the line.  Of course, we were a room full of late teens/early 20s so that is not surprising.  

He then continued by suggesting that in five years, if we find this paper and review it, that many of the items may have changed and that, if one is honest, some of the items below the line would actually be above the line five years later.  

I kept that page.  It was eight years after that class when I found it as I was going through some of my college papers. 

He was right, many of those things below the line were actually things that (in retrospect) made me a stronger and more confident young woman, taught me some valuable lessons about life, and had been very good for me to experience.  Most of them made me more apathetic, understanding, and more determined to be who I knew I should be. 

So I think it may be with many of us. 

We learn from the negative or sad experiences and move on to positive ones…unless we find ourselves stuck in the negative.  I think we all probably know one or two people that fit into the “stuck in the negative” category.  We may even find ourselves in that negative place.  

Most of us get out of that in a short time.  Some of us take longer and others need a little jump-start from one of the three “F’s”… friends, family, faith.  

I’ve learned a great deal from experiences that were not only positive factors in my life but which have turned into what one may consider a “negative” one. I’ve learned that life goes on and you can either sit there and let the good things in life pass you by or you can get yourself up, dust yourself off – call it a jump-start if you will – and  move on … embracing the good things in life and learning from the negative or sad times.  

My wish for you today is that, if you find yourself in a funky place in life where you are stuck, you give yourself a jump-start…take a look at what is/has been good in your life and the many blessings that you have right now, and begin living again.  Life is just too short not to do that.  If you find yourself, like some of us do from time to time, in a state where you just can’t seem to shake it – get some help.  There are lots of good counselors out there that can help you sort through the negative and find an inner peace you deserve.  Go find someone who can guide you into refocusing your energies in a positive way.  You’ll be glad you did.  

~ Joellen

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 12:02:am and is filed under Living Life to the Fullest, Making wise choices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.