"I'm great thanks. Is there any other way to be? It’s better to be disappointed by expecting a lot and getting nothing
than by expecting nothing and getting it.—Larry Winget
The sweetest couple looked at our house yesterday.
If they don’t buy it I want them as friends.
They had been looking at our house on the internet in China, came into town about a week ago, and showed up here looking for a log home.
They said that a house is fated. They still had to give this one “serious thought” but I loved their attitude, and that they loved the house and they love animals. Now it is up to the fates.
You know how it is when people talk about their animals, their stories are often horror ones? Not this couple. Their stories were happy.
The lady often rescues stray dogs, and one dog she picked up was sick and hungry and so ugly no one wanted it. They nursed it to health, and someone in Beverly Hills wanted it. Now it lives in the lap of luxury, in an aircondioned house and fed hamburger. The neighbors even think it is a rare breed.
And ferrets. (My daughter has ferrets, thus the ferret story.) Mrs. Buyer said that one day a ferret wandered into the school house where they were teaching. They caught it and were going to carry it away and turn it loose. The Chinese people said, “Oh you do not disturb a ferret. It is bad luck.”
“But we were going to carry it away.”
“No matter, the damage is done.”
When a storm came through they blamed the people who disturbed the ferret. Not a happy story? A cute story.
And I learned a Chinese phrase. Ni Hao Pronounced “Knee How.” It means, “How are you?”
Besides this buyer story and the cleaning frenzy around here—did I tell you we can now walk through our garage? I have been trying to de-idiot myself. (Too late, I gave hubby’s work boots to the Goodwill and how he is without work boots. Guess I need to go to Goodwill and see if I can buy them back.)
I’ve been reading Larry Winget’s book People Are Idiots and I Can Prove It!
A rude title yes, but he gives help on how we can overcome idiocy.
Now don’t be offended. You know that no matter how smart we are we all behave as idiots sometimes. Like we ask for advice, beg for advice, even pay for advice, and then don’t take it. Do people follow their doctor’s advice; do they follow a rich person’s advice on how to get wealthy? People smoke when each cigarette will take 13 minutes off their life, they drink and drive. People say they want more honesty in government yet 60% cheat on their taxes. Oh yes, the lottery, and $300 jeans. Some people even think the earth is flat and Elvis is still alive.
I know none of that applies to you.
I do believe we are like horses. A horse is athletic, can run a total of 25 miles a day, yet to reward them you let them do nothing. Well, we’re all a little lazy sometimes. Writes Jim Rohn, “What is easy to do is also easy not to do.”
It’s easy to eat healthy, and easy not to. It’s easy to spend more time with your kids, and easy not to. It’s easy to procrastinate, but probably feels better not to.
In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain said this about Tom:
He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.
What if “they” have been lying to us and all those things we want—health, happiness, success, great relationships—are easy?
If you want to know more about not being an idiot, tune in later. I haven’t finished the book.
A bit of advice from Winget, “Stop worrying about might happen. It rarely happens anyway, so why worry about it.”
And one final word: Learn how to meditate. If that sounds too woo woo for you simply tune in to slowing your body and stilling your mind.
My friend John told me this story about his mother. She said, “You know that ratty old chair we have? Well that damn fool of a dad of yours dragged it into the garden. When I asked him why, he said, “I’m watching the garden grow.”
“And you know what? I dragged another chair in beside him.”
That’s meditation.
And from Joyce’s book, It’s Hard To Stay On A Horse While You’re Unconscious:
Horse Priorities
Horses like safety, comfort, play, and food—in that order. Safety—that is the reason a horse will run into a burning barn after it has been led out. He had been safe in the barn up until now. Comfort and food had been freely dispersed in that barn. What happened? The horse can’t comprehend that his comfort zone would turn on him, even if it was ablaze.
So, how much like horses are we?!
