The way to happiness

Digging through a box in her office, I found an old wall post.

The way to happiness: keep your heart from from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life with love. Scatter sunshine. Forget self, think of others. Do as you would be done by. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.

I looked this up online and found it was a quote from Norman Vincent Peale in The Power of Positive Thinking. Coming out of college, I used to be a cynical person, but changed about 10 years ago when I felt that being surrounded and part of so much negative energy was bringing me down. So began Greg the optimist, something that drove Anita crazy more than once. She would say she was not pessimistic, but realistic. That’s about right.

At one time, Anita scoffed at this book, The Power of Positive Thinking, as something for people living in a fantasy land. But I think she bought it in 2007. She was further along with her walk with Christ bu then and other things she had read regarded this book as a classic text (she never could resist a “classic text”).

I think many people would agree that some of the things in this quote were precisely how they remember Anita. Scattering sunshine. Giving much, taking little. Thinking of others. One of her biggest goals in 2009 was to live more simply. Worry was her greatest challenge, one she never conquered but constantly battled.

In the box I also found several Post-it notes.

Humility and Restraint

Tasks that must be completed whether you feel like it or not.

Character