Inspirational Short Story, Female Fantasy Art, Relaxing Music

The world is a wheel always

turning. Those who are high

go down low, and those

who've been low go up

higher.

-- Anzia Yezierska

Everything changes. Nothing stays the same. And letting go of the way things are, anticipating instead what they might become, frees us to live each moment more fully.

Time marches on, and our destiny marches with it. There is a purpose in how our lives unfold; the ups and downs serve our growth.

We must neither resent the doldrums nor savor too long the elation. Giving too much attention to either state interferes with our awareness of the present.

And the present has come to teach us.

We must move with time. We must focus our attention on the moment and accept whatever feelings each experience elicits. Emotional maturity is accepting our feelings and letting them go and facing the next moment with fresh receptivity.

Our lessons are many, and they accompany the lows as well as the highs. We can be grateful for both.

We can learn freedom from lingering lows. We have the tools to move confidently forward., trusting that all is well. Nothing lasts forever, and within each struggle is the opportunity for real growth.

Treat your friends as you do

your pictures, and place them

in their best light.

-- Jennie Jerome Churchill

Taking our friends and loved ones for granted, expecting perfection from them in every instance, greatly lessens the value we have in one another's lives.

Being hard on those closest to us may relieve some of the tension we feel about our own imperfections, but it creates another tension, one that may result in our friends leaving us behind.

We need the reminder, perhaps, that our friends are special to our growth. Our paths have crossed with reason.

We complete a portion of the plan for one another's lives. And for such gifts we need to offer gratitude.

Each of us is endowed with many qualities, some more enhancing that others; it is our hope, surely, that our lesser qualities will be ignored.

We must do likewise for our friends.

We can focus on the good, and it will flourish - in them, in ourselves, in all situations.

A positive attitude nurtures everyone. Let us look for the good, and in time, it is all that will catch our attention.

Those who do not know how

to weep with their whole

heart don't know how to

laugh either.

-- Golda Meir

We all know people who live on the fringes of life. They seem un-involved with the activity in their midst, as though a pane of glass separated them from us. And there are times when we join the persons standing alone away from the vibrancy of life. Fears keep people apart, particularly the fear of letting go of the vulnerable self and joining in the feelings of the moment.

To fully reap the benefits of life, we have to risk full exposure to one another and to the experience of the moment. Full involvement in the ebb and flow of life will bring the weeping that accompanies both the pain and the joy of life. It will also bring the fruits of laughter.

Both laughter and weeping cleanse us. They bring closure to an experience. They make possible our letting go. And we must let go of pain, as well as joy, to ready ourselves for the next blessing life offers us.

When we keep ourselves apart, when we hold off the tears or the laughter, we cheat ourselves of the richness of life. We have to go through an experience fully in order to learn all it can teach us and then be free of it.

_____

Past experiences never let me go until I fully grieve those that need to be grieved or laugh over those that deserve the light touch. The present is distorted when the past shadows it.

_______________

10/24/2024

Dividers from Webweaver Nu's Graphics Gallery

( Permission to use the copyrighted images of Jean-Paul Avisse is licensed from Prestige Art Galleries, Inc. )

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