The glass half full kinda gal! (Day 107)

When it rains, it does not rain on me.  It rains. The rain has no ulterior motive to ruin my day or to inconvenience me in the least.   It is just doing its thing. Raining, it’s not personal!  

I am really listening to what people are saying, and in this process I’ve noticed tone and patterns.  For example, recently, I noticed that a particular person always begins our conversations with “I hate …” I’ve tried saying; you don’t really mean you hate (blank).  Hate is such a strong emotional word.  Or, do you really hate turkey, flying, holidays, receiving books as gifts, cut flowers, your mom, and the word squishy?    Yip, I hate all those things is the response.  My reply to this is what would happen if you were starting to say “I hate” but you instead changed it to “I love”.   A nervous laugh, but I get no answer.  Hmmm. 

If I tried to think of a list of things I hate, I come up empty.  There is nothing I hate.  For sure, there are some things that annoy me, but nothing that I would describe as strongly as hate.  I am vegetarian, but I don’t hate meat.  I’m afraid of spiders, but I don’t hate them.  In fact, I am learning to co-exist with them. 

Words open the doorway to our emotional state.  How one expresses one's self creates an emotional blanket that engulfs the spirit and sets the tone on how one feels in that moment.  If you knew that the story of your life in spoken form tells a lot about who you are, would you change how you express yourself? 


For me, the glass is half full.  If it is cloudy, I know the sun still shines and this warms my heart.    

Without Rose Colored Filters (Day 98)

A world without filters could be interesting. Although, I admit maybe it would create some chaos. The filter I’m referring to is speaking what is on ones' mind without filtering it against what is politically correct. I see myself as conservative when it comes to how I express myself. Most of the time, I carefully craft my speech to protect people’s feelings. At the sametime, I make an attempt to say what everyone is thinking but too afraid to say. Of course taking care to put it in a good way as to not offend anyone. If I knew how to say what I really wanted to say without filters, I think, it would be an interesting and fun experience. (fun for me, just to be a littel bad)  I'm only suggesting I try it for a short while like an hour or so.  Realistically, I think I'll never get the nerve to do it.  But it is a fun exercise to toy with.

Hmmm. What would that look like?

For example, it might look like this... when I recently ordered food for take out, I asked if they had a particular vegetarian dish. The lady responded, yes, we do but it is extra. I replied, with a smile, yes I knew it would be extra and would love to have it included with my order if you have it. What I really wanted to say is “It’s extra? Why that’s absurd? If it’s not free then don’t include it with my order.” Duh! Of course it’s going to be extra, I wouldn’t expect it to be otherwise.

Or like this...I ran into an acquaintance with their baby. Yeah, you know what’s coming. I stopped, we chatted, and they introduced me to their little baby. I said, what a sweet baby. What I really wanted to say is “Wow, not all babies are cute huh?” You can’t tell me you’ve not run into someone who had an ugly baby! I’ve seen this baby recently, and what a cutie pie!!!!

Or maybe this...I know someone who in the past year, works out daily and does not eat anything substantial. Yep, no change, still fat! I would really like to have a conversation that starts, “Boy you are dedicated and have real will power. But tell me honestly, are you cheating and actually going somewhere else other than working out, like McDonalds?”

But I don’t. I bite my tongue, but Mrs. Brown doesn't!