Guest Blog: Choose Your Hard

I went back to Weight Watchers a few weeks ago.  At last week's meeting, I heard something I considered to be quite profound.

After a comment from a group member, the group leader said "losing weight is hard."  (This is not the profound part; I already knew that!)   She followed up that observation with this comment: "But so is being overweight."  (This isn't the profound part either; I knew that too!) We all agreed this was so.

Then she said (and this is the profound part): "So choose your hard."

Wow! 

Choose your hard.  Thinking in these terms opens up all sorts of possibilites because you realize that whichever road you take, it will be hard going.  Recognizing this helps you take your focus off the road itself and all the bumps, detours and setbacks along the way, and helps you focus rather on the destination at the end of the various roads before you.  And this helps you choose which one you want to be on.

I think this thought/perspective/motto has almost infinite applications to real life.  Life is hard and lots of things in life are hard.  Insert any action/choice/attitude and then its opposite to check out its universality and truth.

Keeping my room clean is hard.  Leaving my room a mess is hard.
Fixing the leak in the bathroom faucet is hard.  Leaving the faucet leaking is hard.
Going to work every day is hard.  Not going to work every day is hard.
Forgiving someone who is mean to me is hard. Holding a grudge against someone who is mean to me is hard.
Being patient with my kids is hard.  Being impatient with my kids is hard.
Feeding my spirit daily is hard.  Not feeding my spirit daily is hard.

They're all hard, just different brands of hard.  You have to look at the possible outcomes and weigh those to figure out which hard you want (or which you will find the least distasteful).

Living God's way is hard.  But so is living the world's way.  So choose your hard.

5000 days project: a fulfilled promise

Sam and Luke with two younger brothers.

I was unable to watch the 5000 days movie: two brothers directly after conference on Sunday but I was able to watch it Monday night late.  It really was an awesome movie.  It fulfilled the promise of making a movie that was uplifting and had some meaning.  The movie works excellently to bring you into the relationship of two brothers.  The relationship isn't static over the years and it goes from hero worship of the younger toward the older to distance and wanting to be different.  Then it curves back around as they grow and mature and the relationship becomes best friends and surely one of their most meaningful relationships in life.  It culminates as the younger brother follows his older brother's example to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Luke and Sam.  Click here to read an article about the movie.

The movie brings some strong feelings to those that are watching.  Maybe the stronger your relationships or past relationships with your siblings will amplify the feelings you will feel as you watch these two very real siblings having a real relationship and growing up together and then apart.  They help each other to reach personal goals and encourage and strengthen each other whether at home or with one serving a mission and the other at home. 

Luke participating in a pioneer trek.

This is a wonderful movie that I fully intend to watch again and maybe again and again (which is very rare for me).  One of the best things is that Producer and Director, Rick Stevenson tells us that this is only the first movie in the project.  His video work was of several children as they grew up and he has several more movies in the process of being made. 

Rick Stevenson.

Rick Stevenson is not a member of the church but turns out to be related to the boys in this movie.  He was looking for people in the Seattle area that would agree to let him video tape the children through their childhood and early adult years and wanted to show some boys with good values. 

Luke on his mission in Cambodia.

He develops throughout the theme of building a relationship which blossoms and becomes fully realized with Sam as he serves as a missionary in Chile.  Sam realizes that to love others you must feel what they are feeling which of course has the risk of being overwhelmed.  To see how he relentlessly pushes himself to grow as a missionary and realizes that he must learn to love the people better and how that leads him to feel some of the things that they feel.  It is really an introspective part of the movie that can teach us all to realize what is part of loving others and the benefits of doing it. 

Sam as a youngster.

Other themes that are mentioned are hard work paying off, and never giving up.  Sam deals with some depression as a teenager as well which will touch some people who have experience with that (isn't that everybody?).  Sam was serving in Chile during the devastating earthquake and his videos and description from the area are meaningful as well, as are the feelings of the parents as they wait to find out if their son/missionary survived. 

I am looking forward to the additional movies that he puts out.