Even with all the mess ups, I am still happy

And even when things get messed up, you can still be happy.

You know all those articles that are claiming “travelers are having hellish trips to Europe” this summer? They started coming out after our trip was already fully booked.

I thought: that won’t happen to us.

WELL…

I was wrong.

Our luggage was missing for five days. We experienced overbooked hotels. Illness. Canceled flights home.

Everything I read about before we left happened. Cool, cool, cool.

My son is 11. He is a bright kid that loves routine and needs his sleep on schedule—making him sometimes hesitant to try new things and often averse to change.

We talked and talked about what to expect on this trip… then everything changed. Daily.

Sounds like the perfect situation for him, no?

On the last day of our trip, he said something that I’ve been thinking about ever since:

“Mom, even with all the mess ups, I am still happy.”

Here’s what that means to me:

Things get messed up all. the. time.

Life is messy. Especially right now. I won’t even try to list out all of the crap we as a society are going through but it’s a LOT to deal with! My gosh!

It’s easy to get upset and stay upset. It’s easy to hate, to be below the line.

It’s hard to give people grace. To stay kind. To be the bigger person. To see the silver lining. To turn anger into action.

His words reminded me that I am in charge of my emotions, my reactions, and how what happens to me impacts the rest of my day, week, month, year, life. And so are you.

Running a business is hard. Growing in your career is hard. Building a life is hard. And it’s all so dang rewarding, too.

Even with the mess ups, you can still be happy.

(Photo taken during our “bonus day” in Athens, Greece after our flight home was canceled.)

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#Gratitude #Inspiration #PersonalDevelopment