Awareness Choice Attitude and Happiness

So true.  Attitude is everything when deciding what kind of a day we are going to have.  In fact, our lives are much the culminated result of our attitudes.

And as always, when we change the way we look at things, the things we look at begin to change.  It all come down to attitude and how we choose to look at things.

An attitude of gratitude kind of does foster happiness.  All those neurons and connectors in the brain just multiply the feelings.  So much to be grateful for.

I decided this a long time ago for some family members....  If I'm not included, it's okay.  I still want love and happiness for them.  Now that my father is dead and gone, I remain wanting for him peace, love, protection, and happiness.  I ask everyday that Allah would hear me and give him more.  I have a measure of peace, myself, just knowing the promise and fairness of Allah - Yet I still ask again and again.  The love I have for my dad is just so immeasurable.  I must think of him ten times a day at least.  It's likely I always will.

This is my Grandma and Grandpa on their wedding day.  My love for them is similar.  I thought of my Grandpa for years everyday after he died when I was only three years old.  Later, when I was twenty three, my Grandmother was nearing her death.  I went to her and spent the entire day remembering Grandpa and all the love he had for all of us.  How kind he was to me especially.  How he like to pretend to eat my belly and laugh and laugh with me, tossing me in the air.

I recalled the slaughterhouse he built and sold beef, chicken, and pork in.  And the hamburger machine grinding hamburger fresh - the smell of the sawdust they used to sweep the floor - and all details of the shop.  I knew of the colors of his shirts and pants, and the look of his hands.  At three, I guess I took in quite a lot.

The day he died was a awful day.  Everyone was shocked.  I was confused.  Days later, I was at my Grandma's in the yard on the swingset.  The one he put up just for us - and cemented the legs into the ground.  I saw a glider in the sky and I remember saying to Allah, "You are sending me Grandpa back in that plane.  I just know it"  I knew and was so sure of it.  You can imagine my happiness when it came closer and closer and larger and larger, until it landed in the field across the road!!  It was a crash landing but I thought better.  I went running into the house exclaiming that God sent us back Grandpa!! I was so persistent, the adults came out to see.  Imagine their surprise.  I was begging to run to him.

Yeah all those years later when Grandma passed away just after this conversation, I thought of her too everyday several times a day for over ten years.  I still think of them both a lot.  Love.  Real love is just so special to me.  I don't easily let it go.

But I choose to remember them with love.  Remember their kindness to me and to others.  Remember I am who I am much because of them.  Because of my father, too.  And because of so many others over the years who influenced me.

Oh, yeah, that attitude of gratitude does foster happiness.  All those neurons and connectors in the brain just multiply the feelings.  So much to be grateful for.

Too much to waste a moment allowing negativity to enter the thought process.