Optimism Above All Else
My husband and I are oddballs amongst our circle of friends. We had relatively happy childhoods. Ok, I moved 12 times in my first 13 years and he had such a hard time socially that his folks took to saying “It gets better in college”, but we had loving and stable families. We don’t carry much baggage.
Today in a group chat a friend posted this polyamory meme:
She said “@wrenb77‘s household likely has all of these right now, too..”
She was mostly right. We have a sewing machine and a big stash of fabric. We’ve got enough dice for an 8 person D&D session, more if you’re willing to share. We’ve got at least 4 pocket knives.
What we don’t have, what we don’t even let in the front door, is a sense of dread. I’ve been working for years to turn my negative thoughts into positive ones. We transform pessimism into preparedness. Our bulwark against stress is unrelenting optimism. I can and do find the silver lining in every single thing.
I don’t mean to say that everything is sunshine and flowers. My kids can frustrate me no end, and I them. But I don’t let unnecessarily negative statements stand. “This glass is empty” is fine, but what are you going to do about it? Are you going to fill it or wash it? You don’t just get to mope around complaining that it’s empty, at least you have to say “When I get the chance I will fill it.”.
If I let dread in the door, I’m afraid I’ll drown.
