You may not seem able to change some outer circumstances but you can start by changing your inner experience of life and yourself.  – Joy Page

I know I’ve said this a bazillion times, and hang in there while I say it again.  Every Sunday, I pick the quotes for the week, set them up on twitter and on the email list.  I don’t know what my week is going to bring, because I can’t see the future.  If I could, I would be picking the winning powerball numbers, right?  Anyhow, I don’t have any clue how my week is going to play out, and every week, it never fails, the quotes totally apply to what’s going on in my life.  Case in point, today, I spent some quality time with a student in distress who was having difficulties at home.  This poor kiddo honestly feels that no matter what she does and no matter how much she tries to change and make better choices, her family is going to hate her and yell and scream.  As we were talking, I just pointed at the whiteboard and said tell me what the quote means.  She looked, she thought, and she laughed a little, which was a big change from the ranting and raving she had been doing.  She does not have the ability to change the way her family reacts.  It’s not going to happen, not ever.  The only thing she has the power to change is what she does and what she feels and what she thinks, and the sooner she does that, the better.  The same goes for the rest of us.  We have no control over how the people in our sphere of influence think or act, or even react.  We can only control ourselves, and by doing so, we can change our circumstances and make our lives a little bit better.