One of the most freeing things to realise is that life can be crap sometimes. That’s just the way it is. You’re not doing anything wrong. No amount of direction, resolve, discipline or whatever is going to change that. Some parts of your life will always be … crap. The Crap Factor is here to stay.

Normally this thought would make me question the value of life — surely something so “defective” must be worthless, right? But actually instead of letting that make me depressed, it’s left me feeling hopeful, happy and more positive and determined about the future than I have ever been before.

I have a print out of something written by Mother Teresa about life that a friend gave me. It may not have been Mother Teresa that wrote it, but who cares, it’s actually really good. I never thought that I would “fall” for one of these quote things, but it’s actually really grabbed me.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.

I’ve been thinking about the double nature of life — how it can be both brilliant and awful. I have to confess, the whole optimism thing is a little new to me. I have long been a pessimist but I’m practising optimism, and I’m finding it sticks! I never thought it would, but all it takes is practise apparently. Did you know, it’s easier to be an optimist than it is to be a pessimist. You go through the same struggles, the same problems, so you might as well enjoy yourself while you’re having such a miserable time :)

So, the title of this post comes from my thinking about life, and how it’s good but it hurts sometimes. It’s like a diamond, covered in dog turd. Imagine that! I came up with that image all by myself!

It struck me that there’s diamonds all over the place, but frequently they’re covered in dog turd. A pessimist sees only the turd. But it’s a fool that passes up the diamond just because they don’t want to get turd on their hands.

Sorry, that was going to be the last paragraph, but I just couldn’t help myself. I had to comment on how funny that image is! Diamonds covered in dog turd!

Well. I’ll leave it with you.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!