Opportunity

Definition: Opportunity - found in surprising places and is welcomed with outstretched arms. It could be a long awaited for event that took a lot of patience and hardships to finally come, and it FINALLY happened! An accepted opportunity produces a whole new path of life for us to experience to the best of our capability.

Definition: Opportunity - current/daily but forgotten. It is usually the things that humans take for granted and are found everywhere and in every day life.

Definition: Opportunity - is not found at all, in fact this type of opportunity sits in the corner, ignored, while an individual sits on the opposite side of the room. The individual has their back to opportunity and are trying to think of some way to make it through the trial they are currently encountering.

Opportunity comes in many forms and during many different periods of our lives. While a lot of opportunities are negative ones, I am going to focus on the positive ones that I hope we all choose.

We all can relate to the first definition of opportunity, things like: internships, dates, jobs, etc. These types of opportunities are usually very welcomed and noticed and even yearned for. But what about the other two definitions?

The second definition I would add an antonym of "blessings" to go along with it. These types of opportunities are ones that we have accepted already but sometimes have forgotten about. Here is a list of a few I have remembered lately: the opportunity to attend college, the opportunity to have a job, the opportunity to be married, the opportunity to be in a free country, the opportunity to read and write, the opportunity to go to the grocery store, the opportunity to speak and laugh, the opportunity to have a healthy body etc.
I could go on for forever and some of those might seem silly initially but take a minute and think about this thought I had today: "If I had lived my live in any different way and had made different choices, I might not have the same opportunities that I live every day."
To me, even life is an opportunity that we accept or reject. Hopefully we all choose to accept it.

But for those of us who struggle to accept our life and to live it and for those of us who struggle to see opportunity in failure or current trials (definition 3), I have a few words I want to say.

One of my favorite quotes is from Albert Einstein and he said "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

I first read this quote when I was about 15. I did not understand it. I honestly thought it was stupid (no offense Albert Einstein). But I thought: "How could there possibly be any opportunity when I feel like a failure? How can there be opportunity when everything seems to go wrong? An opportunity for what? More failure? More pain?" But as life progressed forward, and trials kept whipping me in the face, I kept remembering this quote. I started to notice that there really is opportunity in difficulty, it is just not the kind of opportunity we always want but one we should take.

I think one of the biggest opportunities we can take, not just in times of hardship, is the opportunity to be positive. If this opportunity is taken and applied frequently and always, it will make trials much more bearable.

I want to take a minute and mention my analogous way of comparing the opportunity of both positive and negative thinking. Positive thinking is like arriving at a beach. You have the whole coast to roam and each beautiful shell, or view or animal you find or see represent the positive outcomes that come just from arriving at the beach (aka: taking the opportunity to think positively). Negative thinking is like consciously standing on wet cement, it glues you down and gets you stuck in life. No positive opportunities come from negative thoughts besides one huge chunk of grey matter that you are now stuck in while other opportunities pass you by.

From personal experience I have noticed that when I work on being overall positive in my daily life, I  am able to notice opportunities I hadn't noticed before during my trials. I now notice the following positive opportunities of thought: Failure gives me the chance to: try again (if applicable), do it better the next time (if opportunity comes again), find a lesson I can learn from it, keep moving forward, be happy that I took the initial opportunity to begin with, another opportunity will come sometime and to be happy with the idea that I tried my best. With those opportunities of thought in mind, I find that while trials present themselves, I have the opportunity to make the most out of the results.

There really is opportunity in every difficulty and not only that, but there is opportunity all around us every day. You just have to take the time and notice it. :)

Gingerbread Feet

I have two feet which currently reside

Within something that is fuzzy inside!

They conquer each snow type, mound or flake

And keep my feet dry so they don't shiver or shake!

It is a good thing that they have some grip,

Or else on the ice I would constantly trip.

I have to admit they make me laugh and smile...

Because to me they look like gingerbread feet 

Every once in awhile. :)

So here I am with my gingerbread feet on

And good thing they aren't edible or else they'd be gone.