We live in an age of fixers, especially since google makes it so easy to solve every problem in three easy steps with the contents of your sock drawer. Men are notorious fixers when it comes to relationships, or so I've heard many ladies repine, they just want him to listen, not fix them then and there. Women aren't much better, especially moms, we look on Pinterest to discover how to easily make our baby quit spitting up (let me know the secret when you find it!) and try to fix everything from grammatical errors to plumbing issues and get impatient when we can't magically resolve something. I think it's a drug, we get a momentary high when something goes right and we want to feel it again, bring on the problems! Except it doesn't work every time and then frustration and discouragement set in. We want to know we are in control, we want to know we can handle everything and anything that comes our way. And with more technology, information, and resources at our fingertips than any generation or society has ever before possessed, our desire to succeed only grows, and so too our frustration when things don't go right.
My family has gotten into a complaining rut. We look only for problems and things that aren't going right and lose sight of the 95% of things that are good, right, true, and beautiful. We can't see the person for the wart or enjoy the cake because it is slightly dry or we wanted chocolate not vanilla. Pretty petty, but it can destroy happiness, contentment, and make life miserable. We've lost our sense of fun, wonder, and adventure and feel overwhelmed and depressed. It's time to take off our blinders, put aside our petty complaints, and look at this marvelous world anew. Let us be thankful someone is in our life, warts and all, and enjoy their company. Let us be happy to have food, let alone something so extravagant as dessert! There are sunsets, music, books, food, forests, rivers, cats, clouds, smiles, old jokes...just waiting to be enjoyed. But we must choose it.
The world surrounds us with negativity and despair (just watch the news or read something online); it falls into our lap without effort or thinking. We must choose the good, the beautiful, the wonderful. We must choose to enjoy things. We must choose to have an attitude of mirth, joy, and contentment. It isn't just a modern phenomenon, it's a problem as old as Eden, perfection and Paradise surround us and yet the serpent whispers doubt into a susceptible ear. Will we let that wretched snake spoil our Joy or will we choose to trust that things are not as grim as he would have us believe?
Trust, it is so hard to do in this 'do it yourself' culture. Especially when so many never learned it at home, having no one to take care of them and depend upon but themselves, we can't trust anyone but ourselves, but that way lies misery and despair. There are some things we can't do alone. Laughing at our own jokes sounds rather hollow. Enjoying a movie alone night after night is rather sad. We need community and society and companionship and we aren't likely to find it online. We need real flesh and blood relationships, but that requires trust. And work. And the risk of getting hurt. But it is the only way to live, all else is just existing.
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