Helpful Reminders

I've never thought of myself as a sad person and didn't think I portrayed myself that way, but the other day I was reminded by two random strangers on the street to "smile."

This afternoon, while I was wasting time between rehearsals, I was staring at my lululemon bag and reading all the cute little phrases on it, when one of them caught my eye:"the pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness." As soon as I read that I was quickly reminded of the General Relief Society Meeting I had listened to earlier this morning.

Sadly I missed last weekend's meeting but I was able to listen to it this morning while eating breakfast. As usual, President Uchtdorf's talk was not only wondeful but oh so helpful. He gave the sisters 5 things that would be useful for us to never forget with his third one being, "forget not to be happy now." He talked about the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and how people were so wrapped up in finding golden tickets that they forgot about the joy of even having chocolate. He mentioned that their dissatisfaction with not winning a golden ticket was greater than the satisfaction of even having a chocolate bar.  I'm not sure how I could ever be upset with having chocolate, but I understand what he was talking about.

It is so easy for us to set our focus on what we think will make us happiest in the end that we forget to realize what makes us happy right now.  We lose sight of the simple things that bring us happiness when we are constantly striving for what we don't have.  If we take the time to stop worrying about our future and live in the present we can open our eyes to so much more.

It wasn't that I was upset or even sad that day, but I definitely wasn't thinking about what I was doing or how my face looked to others.  Instead, I was concentrating on all the little things that I had to worry about in the upcoming weeks blinding myself to how nice the weather was and how I was able to actually have time off and to myself.  There are so many reasons to smile, and I love little reminders like these that help me to live in the now and look at the happiness in my life. I'm so excited for General Conference and can't wait to gain more wisdom!