is for hinking

The Way I See It

I have been thinking about what to write for today’s letter, T. I started thinking this morning but after I read the paper and did the puzzles I didn’t feel like thinking anymore so I took a nap. Then when I got up from the nap and got dressed I started thinking again about what to write using T. Still no thoughts I wanted to use in a post.

I thought maybe I would be inspired if I moved around and got some work done. I spent a couple of hours cleaning the kitchen…even cleaned under the stove and refrigerator. Still, no scintillating ideas related to T so I had something to eat and read for awhile. Then I did laundry and played games on my tablet and fed the cats their supper.

Now here I am typing away about nothing related to T except that I have been thinking about it. I don’t have anything and don’t think continuing to think about T is going to change that fact.

The way I see it…sometimes thinking goes nowhere and ya just gotta stop and do something else. So toodles and tata for tonight.

 is for weet orrow

The Way I See It

One of the facts of life is that we all experience sadness and sorrow during our lives. When you know the joy of love you will also know the sorrow of parting.  Whether the parting is for just awhile or forever, by choice or forced, due to circumstances or death there is sorrow in life.

As joy is subdued by the thought that nothing in this world is forever so sorrow is touched with the grace of memories. It is by the grace of memories that sorrow moves through darkness bringing us back into the light of joy. This journey is not effortless or uncomplicated and though we do not suffer the journey alone it is ours alone to take. We must bear the burden of heartache and loneliness within ourselves finding our way with tears to soften the pain.

Once we come to the end of the journey of our grief we enter a place of solace and can again know the comfort of peace. We will have learned we are stronger than we thought, there is light even in darkness, tears are cleansing and heal our wounds.

The way I see it… one of the lessons of life is that with love there is the joy of wholeness and the sweet sorrow of parting.

 is for ich

The Way I See It

I never thought about getting rich. I think I always knew that wealth was not in my future. Although, I did date a wealthy man for a time. He talked marriage but I didn’t listen. When I told my mother she asked why I didn’t marry him and I said I liked him but didn’t love him. She rolled her eyes and said, “Marry him, love will come later.” I didn’t listen to her either.

Anyway, money has never been especially important to me. For many years I lived paycheck to paycheck and sometimes bought groceries with my credit card because the rent was due or had to choose between paying the telephone or utilities. But I always had a decent place to live and I never went hungry or had anything turned off for nonpayment. I will admit I was happy to see those days end and a savings account opened but I wasn’t rich then and am not rich now.

Though I am not rich monetarily, I am rich in friendships. There are people I love who love me. I know that if I need help I have only to ask and help is given. One time I was talking with a friend about aging and I told her that because I don’t have a close family I sometimes worry about what would happen if I got sick or had an accident and couldn’t care for myself. She seemed surprised and told me I have no reason to worry because she and a few other people would be there for me if I needed them. I almost cried. Money can’t buy that kind of love.

The way I see it…I am one of the richest people in the world!

 is for urpose

The Way I See It

When we are born we have a purpose. Over our lifetime, we will have more than one purpose,  big and small but all important in some way.  As babies and children, our purpose is limited and as we grow our purpose grows, too. Some people have a grand purpose in their life, a purpose that will affect the world. Others have a purpose that is narrow in scope and few are impacted. Many have a little purpose or a purpose that looks insignificant.

The lives of the highly educated and intellectuals, people with great energy and drive who make things happen may give us the impression that their purpose is more important than the person who is teaching school, cleaning houses, raising a family, a mail carrier, but this is not true.  Whether a person’s course affects many or just one is not the primary focus. The most important objective of purpose is to complete the task before us to the best of our ability.

We may think that those with a grand purpose like finding a cure for a disease, leading a country, inventing new machinery or tech devices are more accomplished in their purpose than someone with a purpose that appears less skilled or has less mastery to it. We may think some people are without a purpose; the very ill or disabled, uneducated or poor, jobless or homeless yet they too have a purpose. Sometimes those we think are without a purpose are there to give us our purpose to fulfill.

We may think we don’t have a real purpose, one that is important or imperative. But it may be the one thing we do without conscious thought, a smile or word for someone we pass on the street, opening a door, taking a meal or offering to do laundry for someone who needs help, these inconsequential things are important and purposeful. The way I see it…every day has a purpose, a reason why we wake up to a new day.

 is for ptimist

The Way I See It

Recently it was brought to my attention that I am an optimist. Like I don’t know this about myself!  Anyway, this was not said as a compliment.  The person who was speaking said that as an optimist I have an unrealistic view of things. She added that she was a realist and had a better picture of the way things are in life.

What do you think? Does being an optimist mean I don’t see things as they really are? That I only see the sunny side of the street and never see dark clouds?  Because I don’t dwell on the negative and work to see the positive does that make me unrealistic?

Believe me, I know there is darkness, unhappiness, fear, sorrow, and all sorts of badness in life!  I don’t live in a sterile bubble shielded from all harm. I have probably lived three-quarters of my life and there has been some incredible sadness in those years but that doesn’t define me.  Sad times, bad times, are part of what has made me the person I am but they are not the whole of me. There has also been amazing joy in my life and some of the joy, the positive, came out of the negative sadness.  I chose to be optimistic and I am a realist, I see the good and the bad. I just don’t dwell on the bad. If I can change something to make it better I will; if it cannot be changed, made better, and I can leave it I do. But if I cannot leave it I will accept it as part of my world but I will not make it the center of who I am.

They way I see it…all optimists are not unrealistic in their views any more than all pessimists are realistic in theirs.  And given the happiness ratio between the two, I think I will stick with optimism.