Learning To Want What You Get

"The secret to a happy life, is not in getting what you want. It is in learning to want what you get. Don't waste your time crying over what you're not given. When you have tears in your eyes, you can't see all the beautiful things around you." –Lisa Wingate

I was thinking today about how much life has changed in the years since I was a kid and I remember reading this great quote in a book named "Tending Roses" a few months ago. When I was growing up we use to have the run of the neighborhood. Mom would tell us what time to be home and off we would go. She didn't worry about us unless we didn't come home when we were supposed to. If she needed us she stood on the porch and yelled. It was a big deal when we got old enough to ride our bikes past Grandpa LaMar's gas pump that use to be halfway down our driveway. When you were little you weren't allowed to go past the gas pump. But as you got bigger you could go further. Tyler and his friend Justin use to ride their bikes all over Wellsville. I don't think there was anywhere they didn't explore. By the time Marijka was in Elementary School she rarely even walked home. I don't see many young kids out riding their bikes by themselves or around town without a parent with them anymore.

The state of the housing market is a great indication of how things have changed. Today it is expected that as soon as you get married and start a family that you should be able to own a new house and have 2 new cars parked in the driveway. What happened to working and saving up for those type of things? If so many people hadn't purchased homes they couldn't afford the economy wouldn't be quite so bad today. I think there is a sense of entitlement in people today that wasn't there all that many years ago.

I grew up without video games, a laptop, i-pod or a cell phone and I would like to think I turned out okay. I'm not saying that I would want to do without those things in my life now, because I really enjoy those luxuries. But I have earned and purchased all of them on my own. I think my college education means more to me because I worked and paid for it myself. It would have been nice to have the bill paid by someone else, but I worked hard for that degree and I think I am better for it. None of the things I have in life were handed to me. Life may not always go the way we would like it to. I think happiness really does come from learning that we can be happy even while dealing with the challenges and trials that come our way. Life is great and if we spend too much time worrying about what we don't have we will miss out on the joy of the things we do.