Looking for the Good

For the most part, I am blessed with the ability to always look for the good in everything. I am the one ready to find even a small slice of blue sky to brighten my day. Of course, it is never enough for me to just enjoy this myself. I am compelled to share this gift with others. (I call it sharing. They call it, well, let’s just say that the response is often underwhelming in its enthusiasm, and I often get very strange looks and get called things like “too darn happy”.)

When our daughters were young, I wanted to demonstrate this principle to them. On our way to elementary school one day, I gave each girl an assignment. I told one to look for anything of beauty along the way, and I tasked the other with spotting all the ugliness.

As you can guess, when I asked the girls later to share what they saw, their responses were very different, despite the fact that they were each reporting on the exact same familiar stretch of road. One just bubbled over with joy, recounting all of the bright and colorful impressions she had collected along the way. The other was more subdued, almost indignant, at the amount of garbage and general unattractiveness that she had noticed in her neighborhood and beyond.

Please understand that this purposeful act of searching out the good is not the approach of a Pollyanna. For you dear readers who may be too young to have ever heard that term, it applies to someone who is invariably and unrealistically optimistic, and no, that it is not me. I have plenty that goes wrong in my life, and yes, I sometimes succumb to sulking, sadness or other emotions that are just not really productive. So, rather than sputtering and just being angry, I change my perspective and seek that small nugget of goodness so I can stay balanced, and to remember that I am deeply blessed in my life. There are just some days I have to look really hard, but the blessings are there.

Take the time to look for you blessings today, and I believe you will be pleasantly surprised at what you discover.