What an incredibly warped way of thinking; and it is rampant in the world around us. 

It is no wonder that medical costs in our world continue to escalate from year to year.  Most of us in this ‘free world’ have imposed upon ourselves a perpetual war inside.  We tell ourselves; I have to get up!  I have to go to work!  I have to take the kids to school, make dinner and meet my evening engagement.  We tell ourselves we must get together with family and friends.  We have to buy each other presents for every holiday.  Our culture creates an endless flow of obligations, each one imposing just a little bit of pressure on our psyches.  And then we wonder why on earth we always get run down.  What an effort it is to maintain such a heavy ‘must’ list.

Is there anything we don’t have to do?  Yes!  In truth we don’t ‘have to’ do any of it.  In truth we ‘get to’ do all of it because we live in an incredible world of choices and opportunities.  We get to go to work; we even get to choose the type of work we will go to.  We can change our minds and do something new, only having to deal with natural consequences of learning curve in our new profession.  We get to have children and raise them the way we believe is right and we get to create for them opportunities we may not have enjoyed.  We are all blessed beyond measure; even the least of us has opportunities that most of the world can only dream of.  And best of all we have within ourselves the capacity to make this richness available to all people everywhere.

Every one of us has the opportunity to live in happiness; we don’t have to reward ourselves to a crippling death with poisons, for work we have chosen to fulfill ourselves with.  All we really need to do is remind ourselves that, “This is something I get to do.”  Or we can choose to change. 

It may not be that easy to bring joy into our lives but it really is that simple.