John sees his life as a struggle. One day after the next John feels the weight of the world on his shoulders. Going to work every day at a job he does not like. Getting laid off or fired every other year does not help. Wondering daily John never knows how he is going to pay his bills next month. John’s marriage is constantly in jeopardy, almost always on the rocks. He talks about getting divorced and starting over. Then he talks about wife and his three kids.
Carol sees her life as one of always coming in second. She was born a female in what she sees as a man’s world. She never considers herself pretty, and says she had few friends during her school years. Carol works as a waitress in a local coffee shop. She has two kids and wants to better herself, but Carol says she can’t find a way to take care of her kids, earn a living, and go to school too.
Frank worries about his health. Poor health seems to be the norm in his family. Frank says most of his family has health problems ranging from minor acid reflux to the very serious cancers. Then Frank said he had an uncle die from drinking, and aunt die from a vein disease. Frank eats a lot of fast food, drinks a little too much now and then, and sleeps a little less than he should. In Franks eyes, he is going to die young anyway, so what does it matter how he lives.
Victor was born without much hope in his life. His mother had him when she was fifteen. His Dad may be alive – somewhere, or maybe dead. He does not remember ever meeting his Dad. Victor had trouble in school because he started school not speaking english and it was hard to keep up. Some kids made fun of him. One day Victor said he knew that he wanted a better life than his friends and neighbors on his street have. Living a life of selling drugs, violence, and shooting is not a life to have as far as Victor is concerned.
Even though these people and their lives are on different life paths, they seem to be locked into living the life they have right now. These folks feel this is their lot in life, each one wants something better, but lacks that little something to go out and get it, and has put changing their into the ‘only a dream’ category.
Life can be described as a challenge, struggle, experience, useless, or any of a thousand labels. These labels describe what we think our life is is, not what it may really be. There is a silly home poker game usually played when drinking. Each player puts money in the pot and is dealt one card face down. The card is then lifted and held to each players forehead without the card owner seeing their card.
A round or two of betting follows where the bets are made going by the card each player sees on other players foreheads. Whoever has the highest card against their forehead after the betting wins the money. The game is funny to watch, and may be funny to play too depending on how much you enjoy gambling.
Each of us plays a life based form of this funny poker game. We go through our life with a sign we do not see telling others what we have decided our life is. We have each created our own life and we can change our lives at will. Changing our life sign takes will power and endurance mixed with determination and creativity. Sometime it is not easy to change because we do not know where to start, but if we keep trying to change we will change and usually for the better.
Most people live life in with their sign on their forehead to show to the world. They either do not know or forgot the words on their sign can be changed any moment. If you are going through life with a sign having words you are not happy with, get out a can of spray paint, some lettering, and put words on the sign that describe the life you think you want to have. Once you know what you do not want, getting to what you do want becomes easier. Don’t settle for what your life is if you want something different for your life.
