Friday, January 9, 2015

Lessons Learned From Cinderella and Georgia

I watch my grandson a few days a week while my son and daughter-in-law work.  Usually when I arrive at their house in the mornings, his big sister Georgia is watching one of her favorite movies as she is eating her breakfast.  On Tuesday she was watching the old animated Cinderella.  It is the one with the birds and mice that sew her a dress to wear to the ball.  Cinderella was always so humble as she cooked and cleaned, wore clothes that were rags and made sure that all of the animals were fed and taken care of.  What a sweet girl she was.

When the night of the ball arrived, Cinderella finished all of her chores then put on her 'new' pink dress and ran downstairs to get into the carriage.  As the 2 wicked step sisters saw her, they immediately grabbed her necklace made out of discarded beads and an old sash that belonged to them.  Cinderella's dress was torn into shreds as they laughed and headed out the door.  I wanted to cry for her, knowing her chance was gone.  Instead I said, 'those 2 are so mean.'  And Georgia said in her sweet voice, 'yes, but I still like them'. 

Thanks Cinderella for teaching me that things will be brighter one day.  And thank you Georgia for teaching me that you can find good in people if you just look.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Happy New Year

There was a movie made about 10 years ago where a 13 year old girl wishes that she could skip over her teen years and become an adult.  She is granted her wish and wakes up in NY as a 30 year old woman.  During the following days and weeks, she realizes that she was one of the popular group of girls in junior high that also was a group of bullies.  She has lost her best friend and doesn't visit her parents.  She has sabotaged her job and boss, who she thinks is a really nice guy and doesn't deserve to lose his company.  Her co-workers dislike her and her secretary is afraid of her.  In short, her life is nothing like she thought it would be.

In one scene, she goes back to her childhood home trying to reverse the wish.  At breakfast the next morning she asks her mother if she regretted making any mistakes in her life. Her mother tells her "no, because if I hadn't have made them, I wouldn't have learned how to make things right."  And at this point of the movie I want to yell at the TV, "of course you would change some of your decisions!"  Who wouldn't want to change some things in their life?

Whether it is not going into debt for that new car when you had a perfectly good car, or something as simple as not cutting someone off in traffic, who of us wouldn't change a few things in our life?  (And no, you can't find out the winning lottery numbers.) 

Today is the start of a new year.  Make this year one that on Dec 31, 2015, you won't have to say , "If I could change what I did this year...."