It is so exciting to begin a new year! Every New Year is a new beginning. As I think of what I want from this New Year I continue to see the importance of “making it happen in 2011”. I have always believed that we each create our own reality. I continue to remind myself of the importance of finding joy and happiness in what I have at this moment and yet also of the importance of daily working towards the goals that I have set for myself. As I watch the news I continue to see the unhappiness and misery that people choose to continue to live in and I so wish I could help them to see how different things could be for them. Many people still do not understand that they are what they think about. People have been fooled into believing that they are entitled to happiness and that happiness is in putting their own desires first.
With the holidays I was honored to be able to visit my relatives in upstate NY. They live a different lifestyle than I do here in south Florida however it is a beautiful lifestyle that I love and yet one that brings its own challenges and joys and blessings. I also had the opportunity to visit with my sisters and their families and it brought tears to my eyes as I watched the 9 cousin’s play together with automatic and unconditional love for each other. I still believe as I watch the innocence of children that we create our own happiness and happiness is not in satisfying our own needs, happiness is in putting others first in everything we do. I have found in my own life and in the most successful people that I have studied in history that happiness is in serving others. What do we gain by getting our way every day?
I often think back to my childhood and remember how much my parents gave of themselves and all of the jobs they took, working 12 hours a day to make certain that their three girls could one day fulfill their dreams and become doctors. They knew and lived out the dream of providing for their children so one day they could have what they themselves never could.
My challenge and joy in this New Year is that I have been given by God another year, another opportunity to do all I can for others so that I can do for them what my parents did for me. I try to remind myself every day that every word I say and every smile that I smile does make a difference in someone’s life whether for good or bad. So my challenge is to you to “make it happen in 2011”. Let us encourage each other to continue in this endeavor and that will create happiness for each of us that will last a lifetime.
