My Choice

   Life is full of choices.  Every day we wake up to a world of decision making and selections.  Choices ranging from when to wake up or what to wear to what to eat and what tasks will be tackled.  But there are other choices presented to us on a daily basis, that perhaps we overlook or fail to acknowledge all the time.  Choices like "Will I smile at the people I pass by?" or "Should I glare at the car I'm speeding by because I don't like their driving style."  Some of these latter choices include more of our attitude choices.  "How will I choose to look at this day?" 
   Today in Relief Society our lesson was on choosing to be happy.  Lessons like these are very personal for me.  Looking back over my life there is one life lesson my dad taught me that ALWAYS sticks out above the rest.  This lesson being: You can choose to be happy.
  Through the course of our lives we will all experience hardships and trials, difficult or dark times.  But it is how we choose to handle those times that makes us who we are.  I know as writers we face many challenges and disappointments, but we can also anticipate great accomplishments and triumphs.  We can't let the hard times outweigh the good, whether in our writing or in our day to day lives. 
  We are entering a time where we must make our choice, otherwise the choice will be made for us.  We can't afford to let anyone or anything make that choice for us.  It is our God given right and gift to choose.  We must take advantage of that.  When we choose to be positive and happy the doors of possibility will be unlocked.  When we choose to see the better part our eyes will be opened to greater things.  We can not let disappointment rule our lives.  I wrote last week about a devastating loss of a large chunk of our WIP I had just written.  I have been struggling trying to recreate the words and scene I had first written.  It took me some time to step back and realize that it's OK.  It's not the end of the world.  I had chosen to have a negative attitude about it and was hindering my own creativity in doing so.  So yesterday I sat down and just typed out everything that I could remember.  It's not in a polished story format at all.  It's just notes and basic thoughts, but I put it down.  I couldn't let my bad attitude keep the story from being written.  I made a choice. 

  I have made my choice, I choose to be happy.  I choose to be positive.  I know there will be days where this is really hard to stick to.  I know I will struggle and want to throw a fit, but if I remember to keep a positive attitude and just be happy I KNOW things will work out.  And now I challenge all of you.  Make your choice.  I hope you all choose to be happy, choose to be cheerful.  In doing so I believe we will spread a greater message than any book could.  I believe we could show the world who we are and what we really stand for.