“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
"How you spend your days is, of course, how you spend your life." Annie Dillard
Perspective makes all the difference. There's something that always used to bother me about statements like "I hate Mondays" and "Fridays make me so happy" and "On Wednesdays I can feel the hope rising within me as the darkness of the week begins to fade away." Really? Every day is a gift worthy to be celebrated. If we stop trying on Mondays, those are a whole lot of days in our lifetime of being miserable simply because a week was starting.
I used to love the show "The Weekenders." That gang of kids knew exactly how I felt every Friday afternoon in elementary school--weekends meant freedom and fun. Truly, those were the days when "we lived for the weekend!"
But now as a slightly more mature adult, I realize that an attitude like that is poisonous. We should be grateful for our lives and every simple, meager, humdrum day. Not every day do we get to have amazing experiences but every day we make memories and every day we can choose to be joyful in any situation.
Today is December 1st. It's a Thursday. I'm not looking forward to a few things on today's agenda. I don't work today. I don't have plans for the weekend. These days aren't very full. In fact they are quite boring. A day of job applications, reading and dreaming. Later on I'll have dinner with my family and watch a movie.
But I still wouldn't trade these days I've been given. These days are about waiting, about expecting. I hope I will snag a journalism job soon and I'm praying so hard for this specific opportunity I have. Every day that goes by, my trust increases. I'm never without hope. And though the days may be lonely, my heart is full thanks to the one who never leaves. He continues to pour His love on me, in every difficult moment--every time I'm afraid and each time I start to doubt.
Today is December 1st. I hope to embrace this Advent season and tie my own season of waiting with Mother Mary's. I graduated in April and the months continue to go by. I'm still here--livin' on a prayer. But today I'm happy. And I couldn't ask for anything more.
"Be strong, let your heart take courage, all who hope in the Lord." -Psalm 31:25
