Don’t sweat it…

Today’s daily prompt asked us to think about a time, when we let something slide and asked us how we would fix it today. I read it first thing in the morning, made a quick reply on my kitchen blog and started my workday. I couldn’t shake it off, it was all day long on my mind and it made me almost angry. Is that what we try to teach the younger generations behind us. To be stuck in the past and trying to fix something that cannot be fixed? Plain and frankly, that’s Baloney..if I may say so.

As many of you know, I was raised by my Grandmother. A woman, who took me in when I was only 6 years old. She was 10 years older than I am today (and I feel already old at times) and I still see her in my mind, she was a beautiful woman, strong and confident. She had so much joy in her heart, it was contagious. I found her witty and funny and can still hear her laughter -mostly about me.

She had a tough life, survived two world wars, lost two children and her husband…still she seemed to enjoy life to the fullest. What was her secret?

I asked her once and she said “don’t sweat the big stuff” and over the years I thought about it many times. From an early age on we learn not to sweat the little stuff, we manage to pass the small obstacles in our daily lives; we look forward and seeing, that they won’t affect us in the long run, helps us to cope. But what’s with the big stuff? What, if something happens that will affect us and others around us? What then? Are we trying to fix things that we cannot fix? Will we linger in the past?

The most of us will have to deal with significant changes one day, some of us already have. How to deal with fear, anxiety, illness, anger, grief, frustration or withdrawal? Yes, withdrawal, either from drugs, alcohol or in my case from Nicotine. All of us make sooner or later some highly questionable choices, and that too is part of life.

The answer is so simple. We choose to accept the change with grace and without judgement. We choose to walk away from a struggle to remain the same. We choose to avoid the melodrama of reacting to something, that is beyond our control. The past cannot be fixed. Acceptance is the key and we might as well accept it with a smile!

People like my Grandmother view changes as a natural course of life, they accept and offer love willingly and without restrictions. They are a great inspiration to all of us.

Of course we can feel sad, confused and angry at times, some emotions we just have to live and work through, they are part of life…like laughter. We all can deal with temporary anger and grief, but after that we have to find a way to accept the change with an open mind and an open heart.

We make a choice to skip the melodrama and, like my Grandmother, we choose not to sweat the big stuff. Don’t think about mistakes in the past…it’s a waste of time. What’s done is done!

Move on…look forward~! So to answer today’s daily prompt “nothing needs fixing” 🙂