Monday, November 15, 2010

Optimism

Funny, I couldn't remember how to spell the word, so I looked it up in the dictionary - online of course because who would actually go look in a dictionary. The funny thing was, one of the five definitions given was "the belief that goodness pervades reality". Ha! so does that mean it's not real? Just a belief?

Two Sundays ago we had a lesson in church about optimism. We talked about always looking for the silver lining in everything, so this past week, here was my attempt at optimism:

  • To the snow - at least it will warm up enough to not hang around...
  • To the cold - I get to have Hot Chocolate everyday if I want...
  • To Jayden pooping on the carpet (twice if you must know) - at least he took his pants and undies off. That tells me he actually knew that he needed to go poop - he is capable. Even if he doesn't want to. That means I can punish him for his naughty choice.
  • To the kids not wanting to eat what I made for dinner - More for me to eat.
  • To Steve working a TON - I got sole control of the TV remote.
  • Jayden throwing up in the middle of the night - at least it was only once and didn't get on the carpet.
  • Stake Conference on Sunday - We could play hookie and no one would know.

I know, for every ONE reason that I came up with for it to be a good thing, I can think of AT LEAST THREE different reasons why it sucked... just sayin'.

4 comments:

Lhone said...

so, what does pervades mean? never mind, I have google. I'll figure it out.

and, optimism smoptimism. Call a spade a spade. Life sucks sometimes. sorry about your week :(

Lhone said...

oh, and for anyone else too proud to admit you didn't know:

Pervades: To be present throughout; permeate.

Your welcome.

Heather - said...

Sorry about the throwing up. That was probably all us :(

And, I think you have to find a balance between looking for the good in things, and validating your not-so-good feelings. I think you need a good dose each of optimism and "hey things stink right now" to be able to overcome trials and move forward with your life.

Cynthia Hatch said...

So I just realized what my problem lately is. I have been having little trials like you. And I am complaining and grumbling... I have noticed when a big trial comes I usually do pretty well and work through it without all the drama. So here is what I realized. It is that exact same thing as a physical trial. If I get really hurt I usually work through it without a lot of tears but when I get a paper cut I moan and groan. So life lately has been giving me and looks like you a lot of paper cuts. I'm still not sure if my moaning and groaning is going to change but at least I feel better knowing they are just paper cuts.