Always Look on the Bright Side

Much of the country has just experienced a massive snowstorm that spread from Texas to Maine and dropped a couple of feet of snow, left thousands of people without power and kept people in the house for about twenty-four hours.  Some people have trouble staying inside for twenty minutes so watching the slow pace of this intense storm must have been a challenge.  Our son and his family were without power for hours in Tennessee with a seven-month-old and no heat.  Fortunately, power was restored and they were able to heat the bottles and stay warm.  My son takes after his mother and takes most things in stride and always seems to be able to look on the bright side.  If you can do that, it’s a much better way to live.  I know that firsthand because I am a worrier.  I took Master Classes in turning any sunny day and happy circumstance into a preparation session for some disaster that I had created in my mind.  I believe it was Winston Churchill who said that his life was a series of disasters that never actually happened except in his mind.

It can be very hard for some people to look on the bright side of things.

There is something to be said for being prepared and planning for all circumstances.  It’s why we have safety kits in the car and take CPR courses.  I will never stop trying to anticipate what troubles might arise before any situation, but I will be the first to admit that I probably take things a bit too seriously sometimes.  The good thing is that I haven’t let my tendency to look for clouds on the horizon to stop us from enjoying life as much as we can.  Traveling probably increases your chances of having some disaster befall you, but it hasn’t kept us from seeing the world as much as we can.  On one of our trips to Jerusalem there were some protests occurring before we left and people were telling us we shouldn’t go.  We were visiting Israel as part of a Viking Cruise, and we figured that the company would never put their passengers in an unsafe situation.  We were right.  Everything went smoothly and our trust in the company was well placed.  It pays to look on the bright side once in a while.  The situation in the Middle East is no better now so we are very glad we got to see this historic part of the world.

With this recent snowstorm, we decided to make the best of it by watching football and cooking a nice meal.  We watched a winter wonderland unfold right before our eyes.  There was no wind and the temperature was in the single digits so the snow was light and fluffy.  Even as I write this today, more than thirty hours since the first snowflake, it’s still snowing.  So instead of our normal two inches of snow that we get a few times a month, we have two feet of this powdery substance that skiers absolutely love.  If you look on the bright side of things, you know the skiing resorts are doing a booming business along with the people who plow this stuff for a living.  My advice is to stay inside and make the best of it.  We’re going to repeat our strategy from yesterday and have a nice dinner and sit by the fire.  I’m doing my best to look on the bright side.

A snowy afternoon is a great time to look through some old recipes and figure out what to make based on what you have in your refrigerator.  Sometimes leftovers can be combined and spiced up into a completely new dish that you would never have thought to make.  It’s not unlike one of those cooking shows where the contestants are given a bunch of ingredients and are challenged to make dinner in an hour.  Some of them are very creative and it’s fun to watch how they combine ingredients and use their skills to make something that is going to impress the judges.  Those shows are a great example of someone who takes losing in a contest and turns it into a positive.  It always helps to look on the bright side and sports and competitions like cooking shows help us refine those skills.  Some people have never learned to lose in life and that leads to a very angry individual.  Life is too short to spend your time being angry.  It’s time to look on the bright side of things.  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

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