Happy Medium

I'm sure I'm the only one with the "The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side" (hence forth referred to as GAGOS, because that's just easier to type) mentality. You're probably thinking that no you don't wish you had someone else's life, you like your life just fine, because everyone has their own problems - to be in their shoes means trading one set of issues for another. Good, then we're agreed, because that's not the greener grass I was referring to. HA I tricked you. :) I know I'm a misleader, haha I can't help myself sometimes.


Actually I have the GAGOS mentality , when it comes to circumstances in my own life. When I'm in one situation, I wish I was in the alternative situation, and when I get to the alternative situation, I wish I was back in the other situation. Confusing, huh? I know, welcome to my thought processes. Allow me to elaborate with situations that actually happen to me on a frequent basis - this should be fun.


A) When I didn't have a job, I was stressed out trying to find a job and wishing that I had one. Now that I have one, I wish I didn't - wish I was free as a bird. (I'm sure this one is a shared feeling, or maybe not, because I know some people actually enjoy working for The Man.)


B) When I'm busy, I wish I could be lazy and do nothing. When I'm doing nothing, I wish I was busy. (This example is more work related, because when I'm off of work, I have no problem doing nothing. :)


C) I wish I could be a missionary and work in a foreign country. When I was, I wished I was at home.


OK, are you with me on this ride now? There is nothing new under heaven. This is not a new feeling that only I, Laura Schaefer, wrestle with. Paul said, "What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." Not exactly what I'm talking about, but it shares the same principle: wrestling between a fleshly desire and a spiritual desire. The battle in my mind is here or there, this or that. So where is my happy medium?? No, I'm not saying I want to compromise my spiritual desire to incorporate my fleshly desire, but that somewhere in between these is a middle ground of peace and success. 

GAGOS leaves you with a feeling of total dissatisfaction, confusion, and stress. "This is not what I want to do, that's what I want to do." "This is not where I want to be, that's where I want to be." It makes your heart sick. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. 


Here comes the remedy. "The remedy is the experience." Thank you, Jason Mraz for those words of wisdom. And not just the experience, it is being satisfied in the experience, whatever it may be. 'But you just said that you are not satisfied in either situation.' Exactly! HAHA Being satisfied in the experience requires being thankful in the midst of it.  


If we walk the road that God has for us, even if we make a few mis-steps along the way, he has purpose in the steps. He has purpose in the situations and experiences. Be thankful for them, even if it's not where you want to be, because they lead to something that will probably be more than you could hope for. Thankfulness is the happy medium between what you think you want and what he wants, between where you want to be and where you are. 


Now let us not forget, that "He's still working on me." I am working on this. Every day, every moment a conscious decision must be made to be thankful and (to go back to my previous blog) in so doing you will be redeeming your time!


This blog is probably more me talking to myself than anything, reminding myself of the truth. Writing really is a therapy. So to steal a phrase from Mike Birbiglia, this is kind of "My Secret, Public Journal." 


"Rules for Being Human" by Cherie Carter-Scott  #6:

"There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."

Ryan Adams "Words":

"If everybody's grateful, how come nobody is satisfied?"