Distractions

After what ended up being an amazingly long and stressful week at work I am excited for the weekend to start. I just need a break, not from work really, but from the problems going on there. I feel it constantly trying to run through my head, the problem in the form of distractions. There's nothing I can do now, the truth has spoken and I feel that I have done the honorable thing with integrity. I am just making myself not think about it and forget it all this weekend, no matter what it takes. I can't do anything and I know that I am just going to dwell on it all weekend. I have to put a stop to it now before it becomes an endlessly cascading mountain of burdens perpetually shoving me down and making me stumble. I'm doing my best to actively take an interest in my own happiness. Right now I put in "Frozen" to watch in bed before we go out to meet friends for dinner. I wanted something fun and light hearted and silly that was going to make me feel better and brighten me up just a bit. I'm being strong, as long as I'm strong I can make it through anything. 

Being from Tennessee, I have an immense amount of love and respect for the legend herself, Mrs. Dolly Parton. I could go on for pages and pages about her, but for now it's just one quote of hers that I want to share. I've been needing encouragement and seeing this quote made me just take a deep breath and try to make myself relax in the knowledge that I was going to get through this and it's going to make me stronger. "STORMS MAKE TREES HAVE DEEPER ROOTS." So simple and yet honestly profound. Looking at the natural world around us we can see examples of how trials and hard times lead to a strengthening and hardening. There are always going to be storms and tornados and hurricanes and floods and on and on, but just as the giant and legendary redwood trees have thrust their roots deep into the ground below them for over hundreds of years we too must use the stress and troubles of our lives to help us dig our roots down deeper to make us stronger. When storms come our way we can let them topple us over in defeat or we can use the inevitable to help build the person we want to become. Take some good advice from Mrs. Parton and instead of letting life beat you down look on the positive joyful side of things and make yourself more like the person you know you want to become.