I awaken with determination to avoid the media's melancholy. Chasing optimism, its mantra moves me around each turn in my route. Scents of the sea and eucalyptus arouse my spirit.
I find joy when commenting on the smiles of passersby, regardless of their mouth configurations. It makes me feel like contributing positivity in some way. Usually a smile eventually spreads from those who wear an upside down lip line. I thank others for sharing their smiles and making my day.
Today requires more attention as zombie faces abound.
When a young man, who works at a local restaurant, fills the place with his radiance and attends to three difficult customers with positivity and politeness, I spend time talking and appreciating him. He seems surprised. "Why should my gratitude cause surprise?" I ask. He shakes his head.
Why don't we spend more time in gratitude for the little things?
As the day progresses, I interact with several individuals who have thankless jobs - like the parking attendant at Vons. I ask about her day. She uses humor a lot when others shout their distaste with her job. I thank her for encouraging my day.
I feel an upward reach of energy. It makes my day shine with hope.
Maybe if each one reaches one, two or more our attitudes will balloon and bump into a greater sense of what it means to be humans doing . . . not just being.
The true source of joy is love — love of God, love of beauty, love of wisdom, love of another human being, it does not matter which. It is all one love: a joyful awareness of dissolving boundaries of our ordinary narrow self, of being one with the reality beyond, of being made whole. - Irma Zaleski from The Door to Joy
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