Resolute
There’s been a lot of smiling going on lately. Sure, there have been some things in life that, like most of the rest of the world would feel, could be better, but at the end of it all there are always some pretty great things that we should all remember to see.
Call me Mr. Postive and Uplifting, eh?
Yeah, well, it’s true.
Try and sound pissed off on the phone when you pause before you pick it up and make yourself smile. Go on. Try it.
Listen as people call you and ask you what’s going on–because they can hear you smiling.
Add a P.S. to any email you send–and watch how, if nothing else you’ve written gets read or remembered, that particular item does. It’s the biggest secret of letter writing out there and I’ve now shared it with you. Because someone shared it with me. Aren’t we lucky?
If I had a nickel for all the bitching and moaning I’ve done about the multitude of jobs I’ve had over the years, the one thing I’d trade all those nickels in for right now is this: I may not be in love with what I’m doing, but at least I get to work.
I get to wake up early everyday, stumble through the darkness of a house that I love that I share with people I love and figure out just how I’m going to shake the sleep off for another day. I get to share a few minutes of Higglytown Heroes with my daughter before I get to take a shower, I get to get dressed and I get to load everyone up and I get to go to a babysitter’s house. Hell, I even sometimes get to wake up with a tiny little foot lodged someplace on me that I’d prefer it did not, but someday I’ll get to miss that.
I get to spend a little bit of time each day dreaming about what’s going to happen next and what it all means, and then I get to let it fade a little and I get to enjoy what’s happening right now.
I realized that, whatever the heck it is that makes the blue orb float around out here in space doesn’t really make a practice of letting things be created just to be extras–there’s a part in this for everyone, and part of the job here is to get out there and make sure you’re living the part that’s right for you. You’re only scenery if you choose to be, dammit.
There are second chances, third chances and bottoms of the barrels to be considered, but somehow, when you start out with that smile in front of you, it really is kind of difficult to fail at everything. I mean, the basics of creating a plan for success is being responsible for yourself, and if you cannot enjoy–smile at–that which you are, you’re not going to get anything.
So, this year is about smiling for me. Hopefully not as much about preaching, like it kind of feels like now, but remember, this is about me.
And you can laugh at that, make fun of it or whatever you’d like–and I’ll smile as you do, because at the end of the day, this smiling thing works for me and I’m cool with how anyone else may feel about it. It’s part of those choices that we get to make, and I’m choosing to work hard at finding something positive in everything, even if I don’t see it right away or I struggle to see it, it simply will be there.
Right now, I get to listen to some great music (The Samples “Seventeen”, followed by The Shins “Wincing the Night Away” and Sufjan Stevens “Illinoise”) and write to a little bloggy thing prior to sneaking under the covers so as to not wake the person who ends up either forcing me to the edge or forcing me to the middle of a bed that needs a new mattress, but that there appears to be a bonus check coming that will allow us to make it happen. Tomorrow, I get to go pick up an elliptical machine that will allow everyone in our house who wants to do a little weight loss thing and a little toning thing to make it happen–and I get to spend a couple of hours putting it together–and I get to see the rewards of the machine being used.
I’m not quite so sure how I get to see this massive Valentine’s Day gift for someone else to be such a great thing, since it will diminish anything I get for my birthday, but then again, I’m the type of person who gets focused on something and finds a way to have it, so maybe I get to have the satisfaction of making someone else happy on a purchase on a whim.
I get to read this again and realize that this is going to make 1s of people sick when they read it.
And I get to smile about that.
(Don’t worry, it won’t be a constant)