Attitude

 

I can't tell you how many times people tell me I have such a great outlook on life, or that I am, "so sweet." The truth is I am probably a lot less sweet than you can imagine, but I have been blessed with a relatively good outlook.

It's not that I don't see the bad stuff. I do! And if I am not careful that stuff can ruin my life. There are people, places, things and opinions that I really do not care for at all. Given a bad night I can lie there awake and obsess over them for hours.

But I discovered something a long time ago and that is that there are some things I cannot change. Not consciously and not by dwelling on them. If there is nothing really within my power that will alter these things, I have two choices.

1. Be miserable.

2. Find a way around them.

There are all kinds of ways to deal with a lot of the crap life throws at me besides fixing, or dwelling ot it. Sometimes it is possible to simply ignore it, pretend it isn't there, which if it isn't a fire or a flood, is often possible for a long time. The other is to find a replacement for it in my life. 

A replacement doesn't have to be a concrete item. It can be a feeling, or way of dealing with undesirable occurrences. It is along the idea that if you want life to be great, you have to make it great. Once upon a time I thought this was simply avoidance, but honestly that's okay a lot of times. If it looks okay and feels okay, whose to say that maybe it isn't okay?

I can choose to find the (love, way, sunshine, happiness, whatever it is I am looking for.) Of course I could also choose to find the faults, ugliness and tension in the world, but on the whole I've never found that particularly productive. I don't encourage that.