Standing in the light

Patrick's Place contains a good thread today. Why can people be obsessed with finding someone else's faults. Maybe I have become more reflective in my years. I am glad that I am just an average guy, not in the public eye. Looking back in my life I see so many mistakes that they tend to scare me some. If anyone were to start documenting my failures and mistakes, they might be hard pressed to find a stopping point.

Since I am not a public figure, one may simply state, so what? Your mistakes don't matter, you are not making the decisions for a country or a state or a city. They matter to someone. I have a family which I am responsible for, so my decisions matter.

I posted yesterday that I would try and find the good in my life. I think I should extend that to others as well. There have been people in the past that have failed me, politicians, co-workers, family. I do not want to remember someone for what they did wrong, to me or to others. I would rather remember them in a positive light.

As we proceed with our lives, be reflective. History can be a harsh teacher but it can also give us a glimmer of hope, if we only recognize what was done well, what successes we've accomplished. We are the sum total of our successes and failures, I hope that I have a positive balance. I am certainly going to live like I do.

My 3 good things from yesterday:

1. I learned and put into use a new technology.
2. My wife and I worked on our next set of family goals.
3. My eldest son chose to take care of his little brother and did it well.

What 3 good things happened to you yesterday or today.

God Bless.

In with the Good

Everyday, on my way to work on the bus, I have about 5 or 6 things I plan on blogging that day. If you look at my history, you can see they never make it to the web. Most of the things I want to blog are complaints, rants. I just think, this crud makes me upset so why would I want to upset someone else with it. It's human nature I think. It's like an SNL skit I saw one time. A family sits down to dinner, the Dad tastes the food and exclaims "Oh this tastes horrible!, here you try it." and passes it around the table until everyone agrees "It's horrible". Why do I feel that I should complain about everything to everyone, unless your Dennis Miller, there's no future in it.

So before I start doing it again, I will try and focus on something good. I was talking with my Pastor the other day and he mentioned some process he read about (I think it was a Psychologist) where every day you point out three good things that happened. After a while you start to see relationships between the good things, and hopefully have trouble narrowing it down to three. I guess it's supposed to keep you dwelling on the positive.

I am not big on New Year's resolutions, in fact I can't remember them much less keep them. I think I'll try, in this upcoming year, to dwell more on the positive and to stop spreading the "bad vibes" to anyone who would unknowingly unleash the hounds with a simple "How's your day going?". I want to write more. I've always wanted to write more, I just haven't. If I can't manage a complete turn around. maybe a 5 degree shift will start me in the right direction.

An early Happy New Year to you, my reader, and may the new year bring with it a desire to dwell on what is good in your life.

And ...

1. Caeden, my two-year-old son, runs into my arms from accross the room, screaming 'Daddy' and wearing a big smile.
   
2. My daughter Kassidy told me that she was not alone downstairs while she played, but that God was with her.
3. I got to go to sleep to the sound of a good rain hitting the windows.