Do you ever feel like, in spite of your best efforts, you're not getting anywhere or doing anything that ends up being important? Does it feel like you're going through your own personal Groundhog Day experience?
I feel like that a lot lately. I do a lot of writing for my job, and quite often I hit the brick wall that people like to call "writer's block" and just can't write the things that are in my head, jumbled as they may be. It's like my brain puts up the "Be Back Whenever" sign and goes off for an extended lunch break.
Outside of work, when people ask me "What's new?" in my life, the answer I least like to give them is "nothing." Yet it is exactly what I end up doing.
On a daily basis, I converse online with friends from all over the world (okay, well in the United States and Peru, mostly), on MSN Messenger or Facebook chat or what-have-you. We talk about all kinds of things. Once in a while, though, there is someone who initiates a conversation with me just for the sake of having a conversation - out of habit, out of compulsion . . . who knows?
Such was the case the other day when a friend began to chat with me and told me that "absolutely nothing" was going on in his life. Well, I'm glad you interrupted the work project I was in the middle of to tell me that you're doing nothing! I remember thinking. Of course, I questioned him further and found out that that there really were a lot of things going on in his life. I guess it's a force of habit for a lot of us.
Maybe these are the times and the moments that President Hinckley was referring to when he said:
"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey . . . delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."
You are probably already familiar with the quote. I think it's a good one to remind ourselves of every now and then.
3 comments:
Good post Jonny! I really like that quote from President Hinckley. Life isn't always exciting but is worth the ride.
I know that quotation was inspired. I also have a favorite quotation. A character from a movie recites, "My father says almost the whole world is asleep: everybody you know, everybody you see, everybody you talk to. He says only a few people are awake, and they live in a state of constant, total amazement." -Patricia Graynamore, Joe versus the Volcano
Silly, I know, but I think that excitement is a talent (I want THAT one!) and a direct offspring of gratitude, just as President Hinckley said.
I don't think I've ever read the first part of that quote Jon. Thanks for sharing!
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