Martina McBride has always been one of my favorite female country singers. I first heard her sing a song called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Valentine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that she and Jim Brickman did some years ago.<\/p>\n
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Around this time of year I just hum that song all the time. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a beautiful song of love that can speak to everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heart.<\/p>\n
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Martina recently released another song I enjoy. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Anyway\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it encourages those of us who may work hard, love hard and do the best we can all our lives just to have something happen that changes things dramatically.<\/p>\n
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She explains in the song that you just have to keep on loving, working hard, believing anyway because the alternative is bitterness and negativism. Since she loves to sing, she mentions that she may sing a song that is quickly forgotten…but she will sing it anyway.<\/p>\n
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The song really encourages hope and that’s what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about. She mentions God and how wonderful He is, but that sometimes life just isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t good…and even with prayer it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always turn out the way you want it to.<\/p>\n
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Several things come to mind here.<\/p>\n
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One is another country song about the singer who introduces his wife to his former high school sweetheart. Seeing his love from years ago brought back memories of the good times they had…and he told about promising God everything if he would just make her his. He said how glad he was that God had not answered that prayer…because he had the best woman in the world for a wife now.<\/p>\n
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I thought of this little laminated refrigerator sign I see when I open the frig each time. It says many things but the one that stands out is that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153God didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, or sun without rain…but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
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I shared a copy of that recently with a friend who had major cancer surgery. The prospects for her are not encouraging.<\/p>\n
Sometimes the best you can do is share a little hope.<\/p>\n
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The card says it all.<\/p>\n
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Another thing that came to mind when I think of Martina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Anyway\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the optimism projected throughout the song.<\/p>\n
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There was an article in a recent AARP magazine that shared a little \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pep-o-Meter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d quiz. It tested you on whether you had an optimistic outlook of life based on career goals, whether you smoke or not, what your mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s personality is, what you would do if your house were broken in to, and what kind of personality your best friend has. It was a cute little survey, but it said a great deal about whether you have a positive outlook on life and what effect negativism can have on you.<\/p>\n
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Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face it, things can get you down.<\/p>\n
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One can not be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153up\u00e2\u20ac\u009d all the time, but one can certainly go through life a little more optimistic rather than be a negative, paranoid, unhappy individual.<\/p>\n
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An acquaintance told me several weekends ago that her husband\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best friend dropped dead of a heart attack at 52 years old. She said that event has made her husband so much more considerate and tolerant of her. She said they are both now more determined than ever to live life to the fullest. Through his friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death, it has brought them even closer together.<\/p>\n
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It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not about what happens to us, but how we react to what happens.<\/p>\n
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Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how you feel about taking risks to live life to the fullest. As I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten older, I decided I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna do things anyway if I want to…and regardless of what others suggest.<\/p>\n
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After all, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what living life is all about…taking risks and making the best of life.<\/p>\n
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My wish for you today<\/strong> is that you live life to the fullest and make sure you do what you want and need to do with those you care about. Sure, life may change and things may happen that you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to occur, but at least you did what you wanted to. Life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just too short not to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sing, love, and dream – anyway.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n \n ~ Joellen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Martina McBride has always been one of my favorite female country singers. I first heard her sing a song called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Valentine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that she and Jim Brickman did some years ago. Around this time of year I just hum that song all the time. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a beautiful song of love that can speak to everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heart. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,27,4,3,31,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-events","category-living-life-to-the-fullest","category-relationships-marriage","category-relationships-singles","category-releationships-general","category-teenagers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}