Write it on your heart

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everything we do in life is a direct result of a choice.  We have unlimited freedoms and yet the one we seem to take for granted is attitude.  Our attitude about the world, others, even ourselves is a CHOICE.  Yes, I said it's a choice.  We make choices every second of every day; where to live, who to be friends with, who to smile at, to believe in ourselves, to read a book, to write a blog, to scold our children - we even chose to live.  

Buried deep within those choices is our attitude.  How easy is it to chose to be bitter, to hold the world accountable for our short comings, our disappointments, our failures.   It's far easier to blame others than to look deep inside and understand that we are looking at it all wrong.  That no one is to blame for our attitude - it, as dark as it sometimes, resides within us.  

And so you ask, what does attitude have to do with Ralph Waldo Emerson?  

Read the quote above a few times.  How do you feel when you read it?  Do you feel inspired, irritated?   Now read it out loud.  Again.  Now read every word by itself.  

But why, Toni, why do we have to read this darn quote over and over again?  

Because I am betting you were looking at it all wrong, just like I was.  When I first read it I laughed out loud and said, "Yah, that's easier SAID than done."  Just like most of you I don't wake up all cheery and bubbly, ready to face the world, thinking that "today is the best day - ever!"  But when I re-read the quote something clicked. 

The quote isn't "Say it in your heart that every day is the best day in the year."  It says WRITE it ON your heart.  Tattoo it on your heart - make it permanent - know that every day is the best day, don't think about it, don't say it - etch it until it becomes part of you. 

Change your attitude.

Change your outlook, and who knows maybe today will be the best day of the year!