"You can be right OR you can be happy."
I've recently been sick. Nothing serious: I am a most fortunate man, including in health. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I'm training for an athletic competition and, besides being uncomfortable, getting sick seemed bound to set back my preparation and my performance. Dismayed, I thought about what was happening, what could happen, and what it all meant. Did it mean that I was, at least then, NOT fortunate? Did it mean that I would be right if I thought myself no longer a fortunate man? If I thought my good fortune had ended?
I came to see again that whether I believe I am fortunate - lucky, if you prefer - or I believe I am unfortunate or unlucky, I can be right about that belief. There will always be reasons to support either belief.
What matters for me is what I believe. What matters for each of us is what we believe. We can believe things that are not true, but what matters is what we believe.
We can believe things that are not objectively provable, but what matters is what we believe - particularly when our own personal experience is real, clear, and powerful enough to give us all the proof we need.
I can be sick and still believe I am fortunate.
Lots of awful, painful, or sad things can - and will - happen in my life, including my human circle, and I will still be able to believe I am fortunate. All I have to do is focus on the reasons - objective facts or personal experience - for believing I am fortunate. All I have to do is turn away from the reasons to believe I am unfortunate; turn away from being right about the ways in which I've been unlucky; turn away from feeling sorry for myself.
All I have to do is never lose sight of the reasons to be happy. All I have to do is to keep choosing to turn toward joy.
