Be Inspired For You

Confession of the Ideal House List

The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment. Doug Larson

There are times when we wish we were in another place.  In another time.   We wish we had the ultimate circumstance.

Take for instance, my folks and I.  Due to some circumstances about the place in which we live, my folks have been searching for another place.

They love the house where they live.

But there are some things about it that are–let’s put it this way, really inconvenient.

Cars covered in dirt.  Everytime my nana would come over, she would wipe off the mantel and say,

“Where is the Endust?”

“Uh, we just dusted that before you came, Nana.”

“Really?” (swiping a finger through the dust)

That’s what you get when you are surrounded by fields and you live in the windiest region in the United States.

So my folks met with a realtor, who was beyond fantastic.

They had their list of qualifications.

But there is not a place in the area where they are wanting to live that meets most of their qualifications…

except for one.

And that is where they are living right now.

Which is rather ironic, huh?

Have they ever considered that they might actually be living in the right place? 

So often we become dissatisfied about where we are at in life.

When our ideal is really sitting right before our very eyes.

Sometimes we miss out on it because it is right beneath us, and we are looking ahead, straining in the distance to find it.

It is not that we aren’t looking hard enough.   It is that we are living it and we don’t realize it.

Do you live in a “house,” like my folks, and meanwhile are writing up the list of what you really wish you had?  There are many areas of our life…take for instance, relationships.

I wish he would not pick his teeth after every meal.  (I believe that I would have zero tolerance for someone who did this, it so grosses me out)

He likes the fan going full blast at night.  I’m not surprised then that he steals the covers, but this is really starting to get on my nerves.  (get two pairs of sheets)

 When I find her, she’s gonna like so-in-so on so-in-so show… (boy meets a girl)  I like her, but I was hoping for someone who looked like…(yes, I know, like so-in-so on so-in-so show, and sir, you are really a hopeless case)

He always sleeps when he gets home from work…What is he doing now?  What? He’s sleeping, again? (My mom’s favorite.)

Is he bugging you like crazy?  Or are you expecting her to be perfect?

Nobody’s perfect.  Do not put up with stupidity, but do not lust after perfection. 

If you want him to be that way, or he wants you to change to suit his list of the “ideal house qualifications” because you yourself are not fine enough to suit him, then two somebodies somewhere have their sights set a little high…

more like, terribly high.

Just saying….

Somebody has created the “ideal house qualification list.”

And somebody’s “ideal house” is sleeping at their side every night.

This post should really begin with ‘Dear M.E.’   Because in some ways, I am really writing this post to myself.

My journal right now is reading the following:

(I choke a little when I read those two entries.  How come it took me a day to get that smart?)

What a word to try to live, especially in today’s “fast-food, get-rich-quick, work-from-your couch, look-it-up-online” world that we live in.  Self-gratification cultivated and rewarded everywhere.  I’ll be the first to admit that I have been swallowed into it.

Dear M.E., in all of that, remember two things.  Just two things.

Spectacular happiness isn’t real.

Contented happiness is.

It is real as the milk sitting in your refrigerator.

Or the eggs.

Or whatever you’ve got in your refrigerator.

Love,

M.E.

P.S. Is the moving van parked in my folk’s driveway?  Nope.  Looks like they’re stuck there for a while…more like a long time.  She convinced them they didn’t need to move.

March 29, 2012 Posted by beinspiredforyou | Inspirations, Quote of the Week | Be Inspired, Building Relationships, Contentment, Effective Relationships, Encouragement, Finding Happiness, Growing, Happiness, Happy, Home, Inspiration, Marriage, Quotes, Relationships, Smile | Leave a Comment