PRL WRITES

by Paula Lonergan
Vol 4 Issue 5

I received some feedback about the title of one of my articles, which was greatly appreciated by the way. I know in certain instances I may not be politically or grammatically correct. Did I spell that right? Anyways, my writing thought process generally is I think of a subject, then try to think of a title that is catchy or at least grabs your attention.

In this particular article, of course, it's a take off from the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life." Which in fact, I have never watched completely all the way through. I have seen the beginning and the end. Maybe one year when it plays on TV I'll watch it to the end.

So this article will not be about the movie, because I haven't seen it. But this is more about perceptions in life. I was thinking recently how when I was younger, and into my not-so-young stage, I thought certain persons had perfect lives.

Growing up, there were persons I admired. Not movie stars or anything like that, but persons in my community, in the circle my family and I traveled. I looked at them, their smiles, their lives, and thought they were perfect or at least their lives were. Some persons I desired to be like for whatever reason. Maybe they had the great car or maybe they traveled alot, or moved to exotic places. Or perhaps it was the closeness they might have had with another person, or their self-confidence or determination.

I saw other people's lives as being so much better than mine. For other people didn't seem to worry, didn't seem to have problems, or troubles in their lives.

Then, one day, I'm not sure what day or why, I saw the light. I realized there was no perfection to be found, not now, no how. Everyone have faults. Everyone have good days, bad days. Everyone have problems, troubles, happy times hopefully, and needs to continue to learn and grow.

Learning life lessons is unending and really we are all the same. Sure, each one reacts different to difficulties because of learned responses or because of making a deliberate decision to react or not react in a certain way to something. We can't change our upbringing. Sometimes it's hard to change our environment . But we can change what's inside our head.

I know I had to change my thinking and realize, I am not so different from others. Wherein I may have thought my life was not right, not good, not perfect, neither was, nor is anyone elses. So there was no need to feel bad about my lot in life. I needed to learn to cherish the important things, appreciate the little things, savor moments, the laughter and the tears.

So is it a wonderful life? I think so. Do you? If not, make it one. Huh! It's better than not having a life at all. Or so they tell me.