an upward spiral

The day after Christmas...a good morning to all

Good morning everyone. I am imagining that we all have some stories to tell today! I went to bed at 6:45 and slept until 7 a.m., and that is why this post is so late in coming out.

I could see some progress in myself this year; in how I felt about “mistakes”, that in the past would have emotionally floored me. Saturday night, after we returned home from my brother’s party, and ate another big dinner, I recommended that we watch, Home for the Holidays, (with Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr.). I happen to think that this movie is a hoot. The family is nuts and incredibly dysfunctional, but it is all somehow ok in the end.

Nobody here liked it. My son Matt thought it was depressing. Jack, who has watched it every year with me, finally admitted that he has never really liked the character that Robert Downey Jr. plays. Then my son Tom said, “Well, I couldn’t relate to it.” After the temporary deflated feeling of guilt, for making everyone watch a depressing movie on Christmas Eve, I realized that it really was a huge compliment. My holidays, as a child, were fraught with anxiety and tension. The household portrayed in this movie would have been a step up for me. My children couldn’t identify with the craziness. They actually like coming here for Christmas and holidays.

I decided to focus on this, instead of what I didn’t do right. There is always a kernel of good, of light, of Spirit in every dark, difficult situation. I can feel that when I choose to turn away from the negative, self-condemning and critical thoughts, and to look for the good, that the positive feelings and experiences will start to grow too, I will begin to feel better, and life will respond in kind.

“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping-stone to greatness.” Oprah Winfrey

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Plowed in (and out!)….by our own thoughts

Bodhi in the window at dawn (one day last week...we don't have any snow at the moment here in upstate NY!)

For years my mother complained that the town trucks always plowed her in after every snow fall. One year they pushed so much snow onto her lawn that it broke part of the fence. She said that after every storm, when she heard the town trucks coming, she ran to the window to see how much they would dump on her.

Last winter, she was standing at her window, thinking about how much she dreaded this continual inconvenience and she had a revelation. She’d been listening to some inspirational cd’s about blessing all circumstances in life, and realized that she had been doing the opposite, in this situation, and so she started, at that moment, saying, “Bless those town workers and the trucks that they drive. I know how hard they work.” She then headed outside to dig herself out.

As she shoveled, a small town truck drove by and stopped in front of her house. One of the men got out, came over to her and said, “We are so sorry that we have been plowing you in. We’ll be more careful in the future, and if you do get plowed in like this again, just give us a call and we’ll come back and take care of it. Here is the number to call.”

My mother said that she was so surprised, she almost couldn’t say anything, but then thought to ask, “How did you know that I was being plowed in?!” He told her that her neighbor had called them, several days ago, and said that there was an 82-year-old woman up the street who had to spend hours shoveling herself out after they came by.

“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude”. Oprah Winfrey

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