A cup half full

This may come as a surprise to my gentle readers but, I am an eternal optimist. I do so believe that the sun will come up tomorrow, that the cup is half full and that that is a light at the end of the tunnel rather than an on-coming train. I could come up with other trite sayings but, I've had to recently lay off workers at my metaphor factor, Meta-Les.

I whine more than I should but this does not mean that over all I don't see the bright side of things. As you may have already noticed I am greatly affected by the sun. The less there is the more I whine. I however end each day the same. I count my blessings. And you know what? I always end up far ahead. I count them great and small although they all seem great. Most of us just look for the big stuff; love, money etc. I would have you know that it is all big stuff. Being able to walk, enjoy the sunshine, have a roast come out perfectly, be able to serve another, they are all blessings. The key to seeing your blessings is that you must learn to see the positive in all things. I do realize that this is easier on some days rather than on others. The way to do this is to as much as you can ignore the bad. By that I mean that which you can do nothing about. So, ignore what you can do nothing about and capitalize on the pluses and you will find so much more positive about you. We often miss blessings because we concentrate on what we don't have or things not being the way we want them to be.

Things not being the way we want them to be... I have learned that many times that the way we would like things to be are not actually best for us. As well, there are always lessons in the way things are but, that's a topic for another time. In my few years on this planet I have learned that the most incredible things have happened when I have concentrated on the positive.

I remember a time in graduate school when my stipend check was very late, very late. The Registrar's office had filled my checks under Iii. My name is of course Lester Bryant III. One might believe that they should have know that no one has the last name Iii but, it took three and a half months to straighten things out. The more I persisted the more the problem seemed to be less of a priority for them. I lost 34 pounds during this period. I made it through by being an optimist deep down. On one particular day during this period I got a notice from the landlord to pay-up or else. I had no idea what to do. As I stared out the window I noticed how bright and sunny it was. I decided on instinct to go for a walk and enjoy the sunshine. It at least was free. I was weak and it did take some effort to get down the three fights of stairs, but I did. I walked two blocks and crossed the street. When I entered the middle of the intersection I noticed what seemed to be money. I looked about and this was Saturday, a day when from five directions there would be busy traffic and people walking. There was no traffic and no people as far as I could see. I thought this odd and thought it even odder that rolled tightly in the middle of the street were four one hundred dollar bills. I picked up the money and looked in every direction... not a soul. It was as if it was there for me or rather my landlord. Perhaps the moral of the story was that we should always look up even when we're looking down. I certainly counted the walk and the money among my blessing that day! I have about a hundred stories like that one where there was a great blessing just waiting for me. I guess what I am saying is that blessings are every where and often we miss them by concentrating on the negative, how things are not. Blessings, look for them and count them all often.

Speaking of optimism, today is primary day... go vote!