Nov. 7. 2010 Optimism is fed by gratitude

Nov. 7. 2010
Optimism is fed by gratitude

Honestly, not much happened today of notability. I mean things happened. I had breakfast with a friend, went to work with Mo and the crew doing winter cleaning on our properties, looked at a house to potentially add to the portfolio, went to a movie, took a bath, made some tea, and will shortly read my book, say my mantra 108 times plus or minus, and go to bed.

And I am so happy for it, grateful even. When I wrote about being tired about writing, I meant it. As anyone who writes a thousand words a day consistently, and really tries to make them count I believe would tell you, it gets tiring. Maybe not, surely there are people out there who write thousands of words daily and would scoff at my being tired over the task I’m undertaking. But I would challenge to them to make mental notes about the life they are living, as they live it, whilst keeping a watchful eye for any gentle nuances which may offer hints to the unfolding of meaning hidden within chance occurrences, and random interactions.

For example, (and is it i.e. or e.g.?)

Upon searching for one of the new friends I made on Facebook, I landed on a page for a person with the same name. And as I skimmed the page I found a quotation that stuck me deeply. It read as follows:

'Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, and a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.' ~ Melodie Beattie

And I thought to myself, as I was already well drenched in the feeling of gratitude for the work that had come from the experience of the night before, this is exactly what I would share with people who read about my odyssey through optimism.


If Optimism is the engine, gratitude is the fuel feeds it, and allows for the generation of that glowing connection with divine energy; the one that draws people to one’s self and sparks serendipitous occasions.

Like the transformation of the not so grand event of sitting on the tailgate of a truck, at the dump, waiting behind some trucks for your turn to drop a load of refuse, into an opportunity to help one of your employees change their day for from awful to fantastic. What’s that worth, besides being happy to have helped replace a scowl with a radiating smile? Who knows; it immediately makes me think of the butterfly effect. Perhaps the whole world has changed because of our little tailgate chat. If not, at least the work environment will improve for myself and the others working with us.

But more so, I believe it’s the demonstration of Joy and practice of optimism that gives weight to any words shared. Furthermore, the words can very well be just a wasteful exertion of energy, like when I explained my current inner work and it’s merits to one of my other employees, who adamantly agreed with me, and even shared with me that this was also something he aspired to. However, in his next breath he began to tell me all about how horrible one of our tenants was, that my decision today let them continue living there under the condition of timely payment and no drama was terrible, how the guy was an awful person, and if I didn’t kick him out immediately, he would be pissed off. And suddenly he was a little pissed off, even before he finished his rant, before I could thank him for the warning and advice.

He was right about one thing, one must guard themselves against, “thieves in the temple”, or people who would replace your mental assertions of positively with sorrow and fear. Unfortunately in this case the person I needed to guard against was the one offering the advice. I thanked him, and then reminded him of his own words. So strange this occurrence, that I think happens to us all from time to time; losing our gems of wisdom by offering them to others verbally.

That brings me to the last thing I noted about my experience today; and now at 2 a.m. and an unexpected thousand words later, I must rest for tomorrow’s 10 a.m. laborious workday. But how appropriate, in that the lesson was this…

While there is an infinite amount of energy available to a person asking for it, and unlimited access to the universal supply of optimism; my experience is that by sharing and telling too much, too often, and towards too many people without taking the needed time to regenerate one’s own stores, it “dries the well” so to speak. Ever go on a fantastic vacation and come back home and tell everyone you know about it all at once? Well if you paid attention, might have noticed that some how that revved up blissful experience you had stored in you from the trip some how evaporated. This is exactly the same concept; and with that, I’ll be finishing my tea, skipping the reading, saying my mantra perhaps only 54 times, and praying for some supernaturally regenerative sleep.