Focus on good: Life has good things and bad most days
- Karen Wilson: Family Corner
- February 21, 2024
- 374
What did you notice today? Was there a traffic jam on the way to work? Did you spill your morning coffee? Was the coffee too hot or too cold? Maybe it had too much sugar or not enough cream.
Did you notice your car started? Did you enjoy your coffee, perfect or not? Did you have something to eat for breakfast or lunch? Were your clothes reasonably clean?
Often, we notice the things that don’t go well or the things that annoy us and overlook the things that work or go smoothly.
To keep up, I generally need to do two loads of laundry each day. It’s a chore that most of the time I either don’t mind, don’t like or have trouble finding time to do. It’s not a highlight of my day, but it isn’t terrible. But a few weeks ago, our trusty dryer decided it had done enough and quit.
Fortunately, we have another one in the basement. So for a couple of weeks, I had to haul heavy, wet laundry downstairs and bring the dry stuff back up to put away. It was definitely more work. Even then I was fortunate I didn’t have to take clothes all the way to a laundromat.
When we got the dryer fixed, it felt like pure luxury to just move the clothes from the washer to the dryer, something I had not been appreciating before.
I recently read about a man talking to a person in a wheelchair. He told the person in the chair that he was sorry he was confined to the wheelchair. The man in the wheelchair responded by explaining he did not consider himself bound to the chair but freed by it. With it he could move about and go places independently.
There is a story about a woman who felt her house was far too small. She complained bitterly about it. Then some other people came to stay with her. After a time, even more people came to stay with her. When all the people were able to return to their own homes, the woman felt like she had an incredible amount of space in her house.
Another woman I read about struggled to shrink her number of belongings to fit in an apartment after years of living in a large house. She mourned many of the things she had to give away. Later, she decided to bicycle around the world. She could only carry with her the things that would fit in her bike bags. Over time she realized how much she enjoyed having everything she really needed on her bike. On her return home, she wondered why she had kept so many things when she moved to the apartment.
How are you looking at things today? Are you noticing the spilled coffee more than being thankful you had breakfast at all? Did you let your whole day get upset because you had to spend 10 extra minutes in traffic? Do you struggle with the space you live in or the things you possess?
Life has good things and bad most days. Which are you focusing on? How would things change if you concentrated on the good more often?