A Normal Life...

... I just hit the jackpot of quotes about life today by the well loved President Gordon B. Hinckley and his wife Marjory Pay Hinckley! If ever again I feel frustrated with lack of accomplishment or like parts of my life are just not measuring up - or like my life is just not "normal" enough - I'll come here to read what the Hinckley's have to say. And then I will laugh, and smile, and know that everything is OK... :)

  "Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to just be people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey.... delays....sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling burst of speed.
The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."
                                        

President Gordon B. Hinckley

Here is another great quote by Marjorie... 

I don't want to drive up the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived"

~Marjorie Pay Hinckley

I have collected a couple of these quotes and pictures over time (one of which I found here and blogged about already); but found ALL of them again yesterday off of Kerin's blog - Cottage on Main (between a post and her sidebar). Though this blog is going private and you may not ever see it, I want to give credit where credit is due and thank her for sharing them again with me... Thank you Kerin! :) I hope you know how thankful I am to have seen them ALL together at once, and hope to spread the joy to others that you have shared with me...

I hope we all have the perspective to be OK with the fact that if we think a life of "bliss" is "normal"  or that a "normal" life is one that is relaxing, easy, neat and clean as a pin - our lives will never be normal - and that's not only OK; it is a good thing!

I hope we all have the wisdom to remember that a life well lived is mostly work - and to relish it, and know that it really is just fine and "normal" to experience such an imbalance in this world. The trick is to appreciate and enjoy the work (be it physical, mental, emotional etc) and find joy in every aspect of our lives.

I hope you have an awesome day!

Corine :D