Stay on the Sunny Side

  Everybody has bad days.  It's a fact.  There are some days when nothing seems to go your way, and all you want to do is go home, lie on your bed, and eat chocolate while reading, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.  Well, maybe that's just me.  The point is that every single person out there has times when they are feeling down.  One of the many difficulties of a bad day is figuring out how to cope with it.  Some people don't talk for the entire day.  Others shirk responsibilities.  Maybe some even read big books and eat chocolate. :)  For me, I do read and eat, but I also rant.  I will ramble on and on about every little thing that contributed to my bad day.  While it is a bad habit that I am currently working on, I still have my times when I forget, and I begin spouting out random nonsense in an irritated manner to my friends and/or family.
  I was talking with my mother the other day about how my day hadn't been as great as I had wanted it to, which then led to a discussion about how we can control out feelings and make the best of things in a bad situation.  Now, that is not to say that we should never be sad or sorrowful.  After all, how can one know happiness if they are never sad?  While it is okay to feel sad every once in a while, we should not sit around wallowing in our self-pity, waiting for something extraordinary to occur that will brighten our day.  That is not how life works.  While my whole week had felt awful, I realize now that I had done nothing to improve its quality.  I walked into each class with a scowl on my face, and made as little conversation as possible with my surrounding peers.  My dear best friend could tell that I wasn't feeling all that great, and she didn't pry.  However, every time she saw me, she would give me the biggest smile she possibly could, and would hold this big grin until I finally smiled back.  While it was a small gesture, it helped me get through the week more than she probably realizes.  She was constantly shining a ray of sunshine into my dark day.  I'm so grateful to her for her great example to me to smile, even if things aren't going according to plan.
  Her example has inspired me to look for the good things, especially if I'm feeling as if there are none.  She has showed me how to "stay on the sunny side".  I'm so grateful for my wonderful friends and their wonderful examples to me, and I hope that those of you who read this will try to look for the sunshine in your darkest times.  ~Sky

The Window

  There is a story of a woman who, while working in her kitchen, would look out of the window and into the neighbor's yard, where her neighbor was usually hanging up her laundry to dry.  The woman would scowl and inquire of her husband as to who taught their neighbor to wash her clothes.  "They're filthy," she would say, "Someone did a poor job of teaching her how to clean clothes."  This went on for several days.  Then, one morning, while doing the dishes, the woman looked outside and exclaimed, "Look!  Our neighbor has finally learned how to properly do laundry!"  To this her husband replied, "Actually, you will be surprised to know that I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows."  The woman stared at her husband flabbergasted.  She had always thought that her neighbor's laundry was dirty, while it was her own window that needed cleaning.
  This story really put things into perspective for me.  It made me wonder to myself, How often have I judged someone else when I was in no position to judge? I then went through my day and thought of all of the times I had thought ill of somebody.  Then I went through and thought of all of the mistakes I had made that day.  There were several instances when I had been judging someone's clean laundry based on what I saw through my dirty window.
  While this realization brought me disappointment in myself, it also brought me hope.  Now that I had realized this problem I had, I would be able to fix it.  I had brought light to it, and would now be able to proudly say, "I'm improving!"  Besides, isn't that what life is really all about?  Moving forward?  Progressing towards a perfect state?  Nobody is perfect, but as long as we are trying our absolute best to be like Christ, we have a promise that we will "be perfected in Him."  So don't judge someone's laundry through a dirty window, or in other words, don't expect others to be perfect when you yourself are not perfect.  We are all trying our best, and that is what counts in the long run.  ~Sky