I think of myself as a pretty positive kind of person. I make it a point to focus on what, to me, is going “right” in a situation.
If the cake I bake falls, I remind myself that it still tastes good. If I have to spend an afternoon with someone who usually annoys me, I try to find something about the visit that I can genuinely appreciate.
(Okay, I’ll admit it. This is an intention and not always the way it plays out.)
As a child, I dreamed of being a Country & Western singer (I don’t even know if such a musical category still exists today). I would sing as I did my chores, sing as I walked to school and sing every other moment I could. I even had a stage name picked out for myself– it was Dusty Rose, I think.
I’m not sure if my elementary school-aged self really believed that one day I would be a professional singer, but it was certainly an enchanting dream. As I got older, my aspirations for what I wanted to be changed.
Do you tend to go through life feeling like you’re banging up against one brick wall after another?
I have certainly felt that way at times. It can seem as if I am slowly plodding along through my thigh-deep-in-mud kind of days.
Trying. to. get. ahead.
During those days, weeks or months in which setbacks and obstacles appear to be the norm, I long for life to be easy. I find myself asking, “Why can’t life be easy for once?”
The answer, of course, all comes down to me.
You can ask my kids– I really don’t like clutter. I get all squirrely and irritable when the piles of books, papers, 
electronics, toys or whatever get too high and are spread too widely throughout the house.
I’ll be the first one to admit that it’s not just their stuff that adds to the feeling I get of being stuffed in to a space with too many things out and about.
When I reach my clutter breaking point, I generally huff around a bit barking out calls for tidiness and picking up after ourselves.
Last weekend I went to see Tim Burton’s new movie “Alice in Wonderland,” based on the classic novel. It was a visual delight and was also filled with intriguing and expansive messages.
Alice quotes her beloved father and declares, “Sometimes, I have believed as many as 6 impossible things before breakfast.”
What if we each were to start out the day by NOT listing off all of the things we need to get done? |
Rather than writing down the home chores, errands, work projects and other miscellany that I need to accomplish before this day ends, what if, instead, I dreamed up and actually believed 6 (or more) impossible things?
