Misery is like a fly

… I was sad, quite down and as far as I was concerned justifiably so. ‘What is the point of life?’ I asked myself and ‘what is all the toiling and striving about?’ ‘Why bother about anything?’ All is vanity upon vanity anyway. I was sinking deep and was looking for company for my miserableness. I didn’t have to look far, my mind was more than ready to feed me with more than sufficient evidence, mostly untrue, to justify whatever negative thought I choose to embrace. My sister is not here and today is her birthday, so why should I be bright and breezy? and the weather was in cooperation with me, it was raining, cloudy and dull. I was tired, had a headache and didn’t like the way my foundation looked on my face. As far as I was concerned I had very much earned the right to be sad, miserable and depressed for the rest of the day. I though I might as well add a few more days why I am at it, maybe one day will not get the job done, yes probably not sufficient. So I put on my ‘I am miserable T Shirt and pulled the gloomiest face I could muster and went about looking like …

Just before I reached the very bottom, I caught myself. “What exactly are you doing?” I asked myself ‘being miserable’ I replied. ‘Is that not what I am suppose to do when I loose someone, it is there birthday and moreover I have a handful of other situations?’ Just then, I remembered my sister, I know her, wherever she is, she will not want me to be miserable. So I started to adjust my mood, discounted the negative thoughts, began embracing positive ones. My mood picked up. It then dawned on my that I was not miserable because of anything that had happened or was happening, I was miserable because I embraced misery. Misery is like a fly always buzzing around us, seeking for a landing place. We have a choice, we can provide a landing place or drive it away. Life will always happen, love ones will fall ill or pass away, business deals will fail, friends will betray us, we will be rejected, health issues may kick in etc. That is just life, we don’t have to be miserable by allowing misery to settle on those issues, they mostly are just passing, if we look closely there are loads of positive life happening around us and to us at the same time. This in no way discounts or trivialise the pain we feel, but we still have a choice.

Give no foothold to misery, it is a fly constantly looking for a landing place.