Secret #1

About 25 years ago, my husband and I were invited to a black tie affair. We really didn't want to go, but it was one of those things that we knew we should do. So, we got ourselves dressed and off we went. While we were there, we saw an older man who was dressed in his black tuxedo. He was standing in the crowd with his arms folded across his chest in a rather defiant pose. His hair was a thick, wavy, grey mess all over his head. It was quite a comical sight. My husband and I saw him at the same moment. I leaned in and whispered to my husband, "I'll go to this stuffy party, but I won't comb my hair!" We laughed and enjoyed ourselves the rest of the night. We learned a lesson that night. In this life there are things that we have to do, things we should do and things we can simple say no thanks to. The secret to finding peace and joy is figuring out which situation fits into which category and then accepting it gracefully. So when we have to or should do something that we don't want to do we look at each other and say, in a resigned manner, "I'll go . . . but I won't comb my hair!" It reminds us how we did, indeed, enjoy that black tie affair all those many years ago and that being defiant would only rob us of our peace and joy. So, we get dressed, we comb our hair, we do what we have to do and sometimes we even forget that we didn't want to go.