Allow Spectacular

This week I bought a notebook. This notebook is small but I am hoping that it will be mighty. Over the last couple of months the ability for me to notice the good and look past the bad had been weakened. Not that I don’t have a lot of good going on in my life, but I wasn’t keeping my thoughts in check and so the negative that was “in the area” was seeping into the processes of my brain. I was allowing myself to focus on what was aggravating me and causing me to be annoyed. Since I had been in a place like this before I knew I needed to do something and do it quick. So the purchase of this notebook was the first step in my little plan. Each day I would make sure this notebook was with me and whenever something good happened, I would write it down. It took a day to remember that I needed to do this assignment, I needed to see it as a mandatory verses a “if I have time” type activity. The following is some of the highlights of the list:

• A dear friend of mine had been thinking about some of the things I had been struggling about. She came to me and asked me a very important question. She asked if I was praying for the person/people that had been causing me stress.
• Another dear friend noticed that my fellow co-workers and I seemed to be always on the go and decided that she would feed us. She not only brought yummy chocolate cookies but brought meats, cheeses and crackers so that we had something nutritional as well.
• Every night my hubby has a hot dinner ready by the time I get home
• When I work late, I don’t have to worry about what is going on at home because my hubby has it all under control
• I have teens that are girls, from what I am told most teenage girls are not into talking to their parents. Mine talk to me and let me know about their day. They are excited to share what they are doing.
• My son hugs me every morning and says ” I love you” and still lets me pray with him and hug him before he goes to bed.
• I get to help animals, and pet horses and goats when I visit people at their homes.
• Have you ever smelled laundry that has been hung on the line to dry. Pure heaven, almost as good as the smell of homemade brownies.
• Zucchini brownies, I don’t need to say anything more.
• It is still summer outside, it is not cold, and the temperature is still above 70 degrees. This is perfect weather.
• There was a fire recently that was close by, there were structures that burned, but no one lost their lives and as far as I know that goes for animals too.
• Have you ever really looked into the “face” of a sunflower?

These are some of the items that needed to be written down. Some were significant while others were just observations. There is a story that has been passed around for some time now that talks about perspective. Here’s the story:

There is a story they tell of two dogs.

Both at separate times walk into the same room.

One comes out wagging his tail while the other comes out growling.

A women watching this goes into the room to see what could possibly make one dog so happy and the other so mad.

To her surprise she finds a room filled with mirrors.

The happy dog found a thousand happy dogs looking back at him while the angry dog saw only angry dogs growling back at him.

What you see in the world around you is a reflection on who you are.

Unknown

There is so much good in the world, but we overlook it because we get hyper-focused on the bad that is happening. We miss the field of sunflowers because there is mudpuddle in our path. We don’t take the adventure because there is too much work in getting to the path. We let our fears dictate how we live. We become like the angry dog in the story instead of finding the joy and the spectacular that has always been. Do you need a notebook? Do you need the simple assignment of looking for the good? Until next time:

I want to be like a sunflower. So even on the darkest days I will stand tall and find the light.

Joyful Change