“The Whole World Stinks!”

Have you ever noticed how the world seems to change depending on how you feel?

For example, while Grandpa is taking a nap on the couch, his seven-year-old grandson gets some Limburger cheese from the refrigerator and smears it on Grandpa’s mustache. (If you’ve never smelled Limburger cheese, it is very strong!)

When Grandpa wakes up, he says, “This room stinks!” He goes to another room and says, “This room stinks.” After walking throughout the house, he says, “The whole house stinks!”

Grandpa goes outside and takes a deep breath and says, “The whole world stinks!”

How does the world smell to you?

Three Examples

1. You hear the bad news about the world’s problems and suddenly worry about your family, your job or business, your lack of savings and your bills. You look outside and the weather seems uncomfortable, the sky seems darker. You notice the people walking by seem to look at the ground more than before. Everyone seems afraid.

But then you ignore all the news from the news media companies. You read about good deeds, business success stories and high-tech discoveries. You watch a great documentary, read an interesting story and learn a few new jokes.

You look around and the world is now wonderful. People smile at you. You feel grateful for your good luck.

2. After you have another argument with your spouse, you go to a movie. You notice that nobody seems to smile. Couples seem to be bored with each other. The movie’s happy ending seems phony.

But then you make up with your spouse and feel deeply in love. You go for a drive and notice the beauty of the trees and buildings. Everyone you see appears to be content with their lives.

3. Your colleague tells you how poorly his business is doing. He complains about the economy and blames the current government.

Despite the economy, you realize your business made a healthy profit this month. You celebrate at a restaurant where the food tastes great and the server is cheerful. When you go outside, the air smells wonderful. The cars look clean and the traffic is orderly. The world smells pretty good to you.

Why Life Changes

“You remember when you were maybe five years old, and you went out in the morning and you looked at the day, and it was a very, very beautiful day, and you looked at the flowers and they were very beautiful flowers.

“Twenty-five years later you get up in the morning, you take a look at the flowers–they are wilted. The day isn’t a happy day.

“Well, what has changed? You know they are the same flowers, it’s the same world, something must have changed.

“Probably it was you.”

“One’s attitude toward life makes every possible difference in one’s living.”

“The day when you stop building your own environment, when you stop building your own surroundings, when you stop waving a magic hand and gracing* everything around you with magic and beauty, things cease to be magical, things cease to be beautiful.” — L. Ron Hubbard from “Is It Possible to Be Happy?” (* gracing = to give beauty, elegance or charm to something)

How can you start building your own environment?

How can you make your surroundings more beautiful?

How can you remove that stinky Limburger smell from your world?

Suggestions for Adding Magic to Your Life

1. Look around you. Notice your immediate surroundings as they are right now.

2. Write down some things you can do to make your environment a little more cheerful.

3. Write down some things you can do to make your environment a little more beautiful.

4. Write down some things you can do to make your environment a little more magical.

5. Do these things until your world is happier!

You can be happy, not because everything is good, but because you see the good in everything.