A Merry Heart

King Solomon assures us that a merry heart does us as much good as taking a medicine. A member of my family whose name I won’t mention because I don’t want to embarrass him, pretty much bears that out. He is the most upbeat, cheerful person, making the best of every situation. He reminds me of my mother. And he is hardly sick a day in his life. Neither were my parents until their very last years upon this earth. The thing of it is, they were busy, worked hard and did not complain–about anything!

Now I know there are exceptions and I agree that this rule is certainly not hard and fast. My dad’s mother, for instance, was in a wheel chair for many years. I don’t remember a time when she could walk or when her hands and feet were not drawn, due to arthritis. She had no control over it. Even though I’m sure she hurt every day, she was cheerful. I can still recall her happy laugh. Of course many afflictions are so grievous, I would think a merry heart would be next to impossible.

Now, I, on the other hand, when I hurt, do not suffer in silence. This morning the little finger on my left hand is hurting. I think every member of my family knows about it and I’m not particularly cheerful concerning it either. However, I do stay busy so maybe that’s a point in my favor.

With so many blessings, I can’t stay grumpy very long, hurting finger or not. I have my two daily Christmas gifts in the form of my grandchildren. There are the beautiful flowers in my yard and even though many of them are waning, the crepe myrtles are at their best. There’s the daily writing and it’s certainly great to be able to whisky myself away to see what Darcy and Flora are doing in their town of Levi. If my little finger is all that’s hurting, I’m truly blessed and shouldn’t complain at all! So, I try to follow King Solomon’s prescription for staying healthy and you know, I believe it works!