Taking Control

I have come to a realization that the happy man is the one who lets go of all the things in life he can't control and uses those free hands to take firm hold of the things he really can. We can't really control if we get cancer or if a loved one dies. We can't control the stock market or the weather.  But there are a couple things we all can control and most of us just don't.

Many of us allow other people to control things like our emotions. All day we ride a roller coster of highs and lows based upon how other people treat us. We place our happiness, sadness, anger, and joy in the hands of those around us, whether we like them or not.  We are slaves to how people "make us feel," constantly reacting to how we are being treated.  We manipulate our loved ones by placing the burden of our happiness on their shoulders.  True happiness is a decision not a result of what someone else does. But if someone has the power to "make me happy" then do they not also possess the power to take it away?  One of the great ironies of life is that so many of us spin our wheels trying to control all the things we can't while neglecting the only thing we can............that being ourselves.