DON'T RAIN ON MY LIFE
Wednesday, 18. February 2009, 04:31:49
We all have troubles, sorrows and pain.
Nobody goes through life charmed regardless of outside appearances.
But some people refuse to wear the negative as their usual outfit and choose instead to dress in bright colors, showing their smiles instead of their tears whenever possible.
Because even in the midst of sorrow we can find moments of laughter and joy and if we don’t grasp them gratefully then we’ve missed great opportunities.
To everything there is a season, to quote a great book, there is a time for sorrow but there is also a time for joy.
I know several people who won’t allow the time for joy. They prefer to hold onto their sorrows and immerse themselves in relentless self-pity.
And although we can and should be able to count on the understanding and loving support of our friends and loved ones during sad times, nobody wants to listen to someone who does nothing but drone endlessly about their problems and how rotten their life is.
This is especially true at parties and social venues. Places where most people go to forget their troubles and enjoy themselves in the company of others for a few hours.
At those times those harbingers of doom attach themselves to one person at a time and recite a litany of their problems with a stunning lack of awareness that they are ruining each victim’s enjoyment.
And as each victim finds some kind of escape the complainer moves about the room, stranding more victims, one after another and spreading their darkness like a setting sun.
And some of the doom spreaders are kind, good-hearted people, generous in every other way.
Often they are some of the luckier in the crowd, still having a job although the overtime has been cut, having family that loves and includes them and enjoying relative health.
And if someone tries, gently, to point out that they are the author of their own misery they will cry softly, with great drama and often agree, using this observation as yet another reason to feel sorry for themselves.
Complaining that one’s lover left them to someone who buried his young wife recently is not acceptable.
Whining about how one is being forced to live on 40 hours work at a higher than average wage to someone who only has a personal income of 5000.00 per year is stunningly oblivious.
Crying about how lonely one with a handful of attentive children and grandchildren to someone who has no family is almost cruel.
Yet on and on they drone, refusing to be convinced to just enjoy these few moments, if not more, of a life that will seem all too short when their time comes and they are called home to God.
I am a sympathetic, patient person but I am tiring of dealing with these types of people.
I have noticed my friends groan when one arrives when we are all laughing and enjoying each other’s company.
It’s like the pall descends before they even enter the room, permeating our happiness like smoke seeping into a closed room of a burning building.
WIDGETIZE