Ten Good Things Weekly--Week Five

I’ve said this before…I am a pessimist’s pessimist. All my life, as far back as I can remember, I have tended to look at life from a negative, "half-empty glass" perspective. I don’t chalk my negativity up to some event or circumstance of my growing up. I was just never issued rose-colored glasses; my lenses are more the color of…something brown.

But there has also been a balance, something that sits on the other side of the see-saw of my life that keeps my negative baggage from weighing me down and planting my butt firmly and permanently in the mud. Many people are so mired in their problems, they don’t see any light at all. Up until now, I have been fortunate enough to never get completely lost in my darkness. I’ve come this close, but never fallen body and soul into the pit and pulled the cover over after me. My personal darkness has not prevented me from seeing beauty and life. And hope. And feeling gratitude for those things.

When I started this exercise a month ago, my intention was to get myself meditating on those good things, and take my focus off the "brown stuff" that is my constant companion. Tip the see-saw out of balance, maybe, but toward the good and the light. It hasn’t really worked out that way. But I have a feeling that, with the way things have been going lately, my butt would indeed be stuck in that cold, negative mud if I wasn’t taking a couple hours every Monday morning to call up the Ten Good Things.

So, even though today comes on the heels of a really crappy weekend, I don’t think it would be a good week to quit this exercise…

1. Waded our way far enough through the commercial real estate fog to manage to make a bid on a commercial property. It felt good to finally get an idea about what financing such a venture would entail, how one goes about writing up an offer that will protect one’s interests, all that technical stuff. Now that we have done it once, it should be easier the next time.
2. Bid was rejected. Trust me, this IS a good thing. Turns out the sellers are notorious flakes, have a reputation that has spread through just about every real estate office in the county, have listed this property at least four times with four different offices, and apparently have no intention of actually parting with it. At least, not until they disassemble it to the point that it will be of no earthly good to anyone… We are will rid of that particular money pit, and can now go on to the next one. J
3. …And the "next one" might be a strip mall sports bar/bistro a few blocks from our house, which has many of the elements of the restaurant we’ve always dreamed of owning.
4. I got my new recliners for my bedroom! And by golly, just the fact that they match makes the room look less like a flea market and more like an official room. Now, maybe I will be inspired to actually apply the paint I bought (and is sitting stacked up on the bathroom floor) to the tract-house white walls.
5. They showed the final episodes of "Judging Amy" on TNT early last week. I like shows that have continuing story lines and actually end. So now, I don’t have to waste two hours every morning watching it anymore. Just in time to start getting out and working in the yard. If it ever gets around to being spring…
6. New espresso machine performed admirably at otherwise forgettable (oh please) event on Saturday.
7. Truck did not break down, nor did trailer burst into flames on the way to, or the way home from, or during aforementioned event. Not the greatest endorsement for the day…but good things, nonetheless.
8. Unloaded the equipment from the back of the truck by myself (husband was down with flu yesterday) and only smashed my hand twice. It’s not broken… :-P
9. The "buzzies" (hummingbirds) are back. Cats and humans alike are entertained nightly by their aerial acrobatics and prodigious appetites for sugar water.
10. Sneaked out between freezing rain squalls and weeded another bed out in the yard. Two down, eight to go…

It is my imagination, or are my "Ten Things" becoming a little…stretched, shall we say? Next week, I’ll probably be writing that my right arm fell off, but that’s a good thing, because it means I won’t have to worry about my Weight Watcher’s weigh-in next Tuesday. It’s all in how you look at it, I guess.