After 11 years living down South (12.5 if you count FL 😉), I  heard a new saying today and all I could think was “ain’t that the truth!” (Because I think Southern-Style in my head too …Except when I am really mad- suddenly I turn into a New Yorker again- really fast lol. 😳 😂)

Want to hear the saying? It was: “Have you ever listened to some folks for a minute and thought to yourself, ‘their corn bread ain’t done in the middle.'” For some reason after the past few months I’ve had, that struck me as pretty dang funny! 😊

I might just have to get that tattooed on my arm, amiright?! 😂 I’m thinking like a tattoo sleeve…. Some grits and cornbread – maybe some pinto beans wrapped around it, all fancy-like. 😂

Man if you don’t know me and you’re reading this right now, you have got to be thinking, what is wrong with this girl? Maybe HER cornbread isn’t done in the middle. So let me assure you, it’s done – I think I’m just a little crisp around the edges 😉

Life definitely has a way of causing us to feel a little cynical, sarcastic and sometimes just straight-up bitter, doesn’t it? I know I have my moments when I am just fed up! Get that cornbread away from me!!!

I am always reminded during rough days of the book/movie called Tuesday’s with Maurie. If you want an emotional, meaning of life movie, I defintely recommend it. In the movie, there is a moment where Maurie, a once fully self-sufficient college professor becomes so old and unable that he literally cannot move on his own. He is dying. And this “young buck” that he used to teach at college comes by to visit his favorite professor and he is SO angry about life and how could this be happening?!?! Maurie looks at him in a way that only people who have experienced life and THEN took time to examine their lives can, and he says, (paraphrasing) “Every day when I get up, I give myself 5 minutes to have all the pity I want. I whine, I grovel, I cry as I ask ‘Why me?’ But when those 5 minutes are passed, I say ‘Maurie, that’s self-pity and that’s enough of that. It’s time to move on and start your day.” And you see Maurie living life in a way-while even confined to his bed, a liquid diet, unable to use the bathroom on his own and knowing he is laying there to die-he is still constantly looking at the positive points of life- the good memories, the beautiful tree outside, the little things throughout the day….

Shew, what strength of mind that takes- to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps- everyday- whether we feel like it or not- whether the whole world is against us or not – and to move forward, only seeking out and focusing on the good in your life and not giving up. That skill is not something that just happens- Ooooh no. It is a day in, day out practice of shifting through your thoughts and pulling out the good ones and discarding the self-defeating ones…. That is something I am constantly working on and admire so very much in others… Persistance. Fortitude. Enjoying Life. Working hard. Looking for the good. Positive attitude. Never giving up. Going after their dreams regardless of the odds not being in their favor.

Last night I felt like throwing corn bread and burning those biscuits (another Southern saying) because life can be hard! Today I picked myself up by the bootstraps (or leggings, really) and reminded myself that no one can live my life for me. I can hold myself back or I can move forward. I can get bitter or I can get better. I can have a lifetime pity party about all the unfairness; I can complain about the hand I was dealt until the day I die OR I can move on and look for the next opportunity, the next blessing.

Guess which one I’m choosing?

How about you?