FIVE THINGS....
I"m a pessimist. Asked if the glass is either half empty or half full, I'm the one ready for a new drink because only a few drops remain in my glass.
It is a hard way to live and I'm working on changing it. I read (and I can't remember when or where) about trying to find good things in your life, to focus on ten a day. They don't have to be amazing, stand out significant things- just ten things that you noticed that day that added something special to it.
For the past year or so, just before I go to sleep I think about five things that I noticed that day. Five things that added something special to my day. I have given myself rules. They can not be the same things night after night after night.e.g. my family are all safe and healthy. That's the easy way out. They have to be different each night and it doesn't matter how insignificant or minute they are.
For example my five last night- were- and in no particular order- just the way I thought of them as I looked back on my day.
1. Loving the play of colour in the trees. The reds golds and yellows are being slowly transforming the greens of the garden. When the sun hits them, they practically glow.
2. So glad my work appraisal is over (for another year) and that it went so well. Always nice to get a pat on the back and told you're pretty damned good.
3. Really enjoyed working on the new poem. It is a style I have never used before, incorporating two voices that interweave. Even if it doesn't work out in the end (and it probably won't) I'm glad I"m trying new things.
4. Liking the way my new garden bed is filling out. It was planned to be airy and breezy - with one white rose in the centre (from my Dad), surrounded by strappy grasses and blowsy salvias. It is lovely and colourful even now, and given a slight breeze is full of movement.
5. Watching a chicken strut past the front door. That arrogant book book as she boogied past (and we don't have chickens) was quite comical. Watching my cat lift her head, give that chicken a hohum look then turn back to sleep was even funnier.
That was them. Nothing exciting. But looking back over my day they were the five I thought of. Some days it is so hard to pick only five, and then there are those days when I force myself to think, really think because something 'nice' must have happened. My life couldn't be as grey as I thought it was.
Looking back like this has helped me see things in a new light. It could be spider webs glistening with dew, an owl slowly lifting up from the road as I drive home from work, the way those 1000 words for Cassia just flowed, how the photo I planned actually worked out OK, the nice comment from someone at work, seeing a child's face when they are enraptured with a story you are reading to them.
I've figured out it's these little things that really make the big things work. I won't say there are days when - yeah they are going to publish that story, tops my five things. But more often than not, it's small insignificant things I think of. Things that I'm glad I noticed.
It is a hard way to live and I'm working on changing it. I read (and I can't remember when or where) about trying to find good things in your life, to focus on ten a day. They don't have to be amazing, stand out significant things- just ten things that you noticed that day that added something special to it.
For the past year or so, just before I go to sleep I think about five things that I noticed that day. Five things that added something special to my day. I have given myself rules. They can not be the same things night after night after night.e.g. my family are all safe and healthy. That's the easy way out. They have to be different each night and it doesn't matter how insignificant or minute they are.
For example my five last night- were- and in no particular order- just the way I thought of them as I looked back on my day.
2. So glad my work appraisal is over (for another year) and that it went so well. Always nice to get a pat on the back and told you're pretty damned good.
3. Really enjoyed working on the new poem. It is a style I have never used before, incorporating two voices that interweave. Even if it doesn't work out in the end (and it probably won't) I'm glad I"m trying new things.
4. Liking the way my new garden bed is filling out. It was planned to be airy and breezy - with one white rose in the centre (from my Dad), surrounded by strappy grasses and blowsy salvias. It is lovely and colourful even now, and given a slight breeze is full of movement.
5. Watching a chicken strut past the front door. That arrogant book book as she boogied past (and we don't have chickens) was quite comical. Watching my cat lift her head, give that chicken a hohum look then turn back to sleep was even funnier.
That was them. Nothing exciting. But looking back over my day they were the five I thought of. Some days it is so hard to pick only five, and then there are those days when I force myself to think, really think because something 'nice' must have happened. My life couldn't be as grey as I thought it was.
Looking back like this has helped me see things in a new light. It could be spider webs glistening with dew, an owl slowly lifting up from the road as I drive home from work, the way those 1000 words for Cassia just flowed, how the photo I planned actually worked out OK, the nice comment from someone at work, seeing a child's face when they are enraptured with a story you are reading to them.
I've figured out it's these little things that really make the big things work. I won't say there are days when - yeah they are going to publish that story, tops my five things. But more often than not, it's small insignificant things I think of. Things that I'm glad I noticed.
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