Life is dull and meaningless! No, really it is!! I had a long talk with my dear friend and this is the conclusion. Life is dull and meaningless until you apply the meaning. What does this mean? (All Lutherans ask this question!) What does this mean? It means it is all about ME. REALLY!!!

On any given day the dialogue in your head can change faster than the Kansas weather, so it is important to remember that it is a monologue~! It’s you and only you who tells the inside story! No one else can hear you nor would they listen anyway! What are you telling yourself? Are you telling yourself that you are strong, loved, blessed, smart, amazing, tired, full, fat, saggy, old, worn out, hurting, sad, happy, kind, living, dying, scared, brave, untouchable, burned out, burned up, faithful, just, honest, fulfilled, empty…? Do you see where I am going with this? What is your rhetoric? Do situations warrant the barrage of negative meanings you apply, or by what you think others apply to any given situation? As a whole, most of this world doesn’t care about you. Cold truth. Many only care if they can see you struggle and floundering and most generally they won’t be there with a helping hand. Many people are there pointing, gossiping, laughing, talking to their buddies, and wishing ill will. It is a huge reality and the point is that we are are so blessed to have a handful of people in our lives who love us and are the polar opposite. It is amazing to me that people still gossip and treat others with such unkindness. I have to be the change. I have to speak out and I have to change the things I say to myself.

I seem to write a lot about things like family, grief, health, kids and anything else that relates to those subjects, but so often I get lost in the everyday life stuff that I forget about me. Not that I am some thought provoking subject; but I forget about me. I neglect many things that relate to me including embracing change! For years I neglected my health thinking “they don’t listen to me anyway, and treatment won’t matter” or to me the best one was, “My arteries have survived blood pressure that most people can’t handle for all of these years, they must be in amazing shape!” It certainly didn’t serve me very well with that attitude! Recently I have been asking “what does this mean?” a lot. Life has tossed a few really powerful curve balls at me and some I have caught, others have smacked me in the head! Change is a fearful thing to me!! But……I wake with hope! A hope that I haven’t allowed myself to feel in a long, long time!! I am assigning the meaning to this “dull and meaningless life” and assigning the words, “loved, worthy, kind, deserving of goodness, forgiven, sanctified, proud, reinvented, hopeful, joyous and living.” I am practicing saying the words that have equal power to the negative words I often hear. It is a project I am working on! It’s a project I want you to work on. I would love for each and every reader to stop where you are…..listen to your inner voice and if you hear anything that sounds unkind, either to yourself or about someone else, CHANGE IT! You control what you hear and what you allow to come out of your mouth. If you are in a group and inclined to listen to, or repeat gossip that you are hearing or worse yet that you are propagating, SHUT UP. Let it die! Let your voice be used to build yourself up, or to say something nice about someone, or stop the hate. Make the meaning of your life “important, loving, forgiving and kind”! That’s what life is supposed to be!! Apply the right meaning to the situation and get on with being nice!!! What an exciting prospect that we can assign happiness and meaning to our lives without hurting ourselves or others!! Have a good week!!

Until then…..change the monologue!

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