Finding the good in life is up to us

It is up to us

It is pretty much what we choose to make of many of life's situations, isn't it? Two people can look at the same chain of events and arrive at different conclusions and resultant attitudes.

One person says the snow has come too often and way too much. The skier looks at it entirely differently -- how beautiful and smooth the slopes are going to be.

Frequently, if we give it the old college try, we can find some good with even the most negative happening. That doesn't make everything hunky dory, but it does ease our mental state a bit. Pondering the negative is a downer. Seeking out even, some scrap of good news, makes unpleasant things a little better.

We've all known folks who see the good in almost every instance. We may call them Pollyanna, but they aren't nearly the problem in a long term relationship as the perpetual petty problem seeker. Most of us would rather associate more often with the former.

You already know too well, my proclivity for poetry. Helen Gleaves Nunn is credited with this poem that she titled, "It All Depends on You":

It's what you see in the world of folk

That makes you what you are:

The good, the bad, the glad, and the sad

Are scattered near and far.

If evil and bickering, cheating and sin

Are all that your eyes can find,

Then you will be as bad as the person you scorn,

For evil is taking your mind.

If you look for the good in your fellow folk,

And help them to rise above

The pettiness there that mars the way,

And show them the beauty of love,

You'll learn to look through the outer shell

And search for the heart of gold,

And seeking the good in the world of folks

Will help you, your own to mold.

A more personal way, is to develop an attitude of gratitude. Try this; you'll be glad you did. Take a few minutes to list the instances of good fortune you've had in your life. Most all of us have had a good number of favorable happenings in our lives. Great people in our family, friends and acquaintances could be starters on this list. Luck of the draw occurred along the way several times, as circumstances fell our way. There will be many more of these when you look for them. Easy to remember the losses suffered and to bring those back to mind. But if you really look for the good those, too, will come back. With some people, unfortunately, Foster's Law prevails, "The only people who find what they want are the fault finders."

I like best of all a Buddha quote, Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick and if we got sick, at least we didn't die, so let us all be thankful.

A humor attempt in closing: "A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it really worthwhile."