Secrets of a Charmed Life

by Susan Meissner

“Don’t you ever take on blame for something you had no control over,” Nana had said, and Emmy had sensed in her tone that she’d given herself the same counsel often enough.

“Thistle House is for people who love and care for one another. We respect one another in this house, Emmeline. We carry one another’s burdens. We weep for one another and we laugh with one another. We hold one another by the hand when the lights go out and when the way seems hopeless. We work together and we share the table together and we pray together. No matter how old we are or what we are called.”

“I don’t like it when I cry,” she said. “Makes me feel weak.” He slid his arm around her waist and kissed her temple. “Oh, but it’s our tears that make us human, Isabel.”

I am not such a significant creature in God’s universe that it is my decisions alone that can change the destiny of another. We make our choices—you and I—in a world that isn’t perfect. And while I wish I had made different choices, as I know you do, which one of us can say that if we had, nothing bad would have ever happened to the people we loved?

Fear does not start to fade until you take the step that you think you can’t.

Fear is not only a leaden foe, but a liar as well. It was not as bad as I thought it would be, sitting there in a London department store on an ordinary Saturday.

“Life is a journey, not a destination.” It’s easy to miss all the amazing things that come your way if you are chasing only the dream, and that’s all you see or want.

I think this is largely the reason why we, as a society, archive our history. We don’t want to forget where we’ve been and what we’ve seen. The past informs us, and can easily transform us, if we choose to let it.

But in actuality, and what I hope readers will take away, is that a happy life is not made up of what you have dreamed of, chased after, and achieved, but rather whom you poured your life into, who poured their life into yours, and the difference you’ve made in the lives of others. Most of the dreams we pursue don’t have intrinsic worth, but people always do. It’s not a perfect world, and we can only play our own hand of cards—if you will—but if we play the hand as best we can, with love for others as the motivation, I think we can rest content.