Life Lessons

I'm a moody viewer, i.e., my mood dictates what TV program or DVD we watch at home. It's not uncommon for me to abruptly announce to hubby (in the middle of a show), "I don't want to watch this anymore. Put something else on." To his credit, he complies graciously...mostly. Usually my mood fluctuates while watching dramas. There's enough of that in my daily life so I'm not entertained by it. But sometimes, I'm just not in the "mood" for whatever is on.
Recently, we watched "ROLE MODELS," a slapstick comedy with Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott. The familiar anxious dread lurked in the shadows from the start. The opening segment was rude, crude, and those dudes were definitely getting on my nerves. But, I persevered. And I'm glad I did.

Starting out, the main character was self-absorbed and extremely unlikeable: male, turning 40, unhappy in life, and dragging down those around him.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly no Pollyanna. I believe we create our own inner turmoil with our compliance and acceptance of others' expectations as our own, assuming facades to camouflage our inherent nature in an effort to be accepted. To be "normal".
As the film progressed and the character stepped outside of his own disappointments and problems to aid a young boy, he learned that the way to true happiness is to be true to oneself. Conformity at the expense of one's nature equals self-destruction.

The universe is full of angry, accomplished, bitter, begrudging , resentful, successful souls. What it needs is a cosmic counter-balance of courageous, fly-in-the-face-of-convention, self-accepting, free spirits.
So, listen to the rhythm of your own soul and dance to its beat, even though someone may laugh. The world needs laughter. Find your inspiration in unlikely places and then follow where it leads. Skip backwards down the yellow-brick road. And when you find yourself on the road less traveled, be adventurous and take a friend.

Worry less about what others want you to be, think, say, or do; and, meditate more on who you are, what you think, and what you want to say and do.

Banish the stigma of being different. If the world needed us to all be alike then we would've been born clones, not individuals. Embrace your uniqueness. Dare to be different. Be true to yourself. Find happiness wherever you can and know in your heart that conforming to someone else's ideal of "normal" is way over-rated.

~Kristal Lee