I enjoyed this post, and I am happy you are finding yourself. I think it is a good reminder for all of us. One thought:
“The world has become so negative in so many ways but still there is goodness, sometimes you just have to wait longer and look harder to see it.”
The world has been full of negativity since well before the young prince who would be called the Buddha wandered from the palace grounds and discovered there was suffering in the world. We are collectively facing some new and unique challenges, mainly environmental, but in most ways the world is more full of hope for more people than at any time in human history. It is easy, when looking through the strange and selective fisheye lens through which we now view information, to imagine that things are somehow worse. I think it is important to see the totality of what is happening clearly and within the full context of human experience. This is not ignoring our troubles but seeing how they fit within the whole and why. I think this is a better place from which to solve problems.
Similarly, person cannot solve their own problems by only focusing on the negative in their lives. Quite the opposite. Rather you solve most of them, as you so eloquently expressed, by building on the positive that is so often unrecognized or even rejected and letting them displace the things that don’t serve us. The same goes for societies, and the best place to start is within your own life. Happy New Year!
Thank you for your thoughtful reply Neil. I do agree there is plenty of reason to hope and there are plenty of people who are hopeful.
The challenge with the negativity I struggle with is that it can inundate my thoughts if I am not conscious of my thought processes. At their most basic form there are messages to be heard but after one has heard them a continuous barrage of repeated information (even if each new incident or story is unique unto itself) simply becomes noise. Taking each thing I learn, piece by piece, and creating a reaction whether it be acceptance or a call to action is all I need to know of it to process it and move forward with my own life. It is as you said, “letting go” of “the things that don’t serve us.” I see now that for years there are certain situations and people who have brought noise to my life that have had no purpose but to diminish me if I allow it. After careful consideration I’ve decided to no longer do so.
Stacie: thank you so much for blessing us with another blog post. Life is a journey. I am delighted you have found a place and relationship where the life-giving spring that exists in all of us is allowed to bubble up again. I wish you a happy 2016 and anticipate being blessing by many of your good words!
Fred I also wish you a happy 2016! Thank you for your kind comment. I appreciate your happiness for me. It’s been a rough couple of years. Most recently my father passed away. Thankfully, I’d just been to visit him less than two weeks before he died. I’ll be sharing a blog post about him very soon.
I think I will be coming back to this post of yours often. It is a great reminder to me. I also made a huge change in my life over the past year, moving across the country (but in the opposite direction as you) and have again found some of the negativity that I had before, but just have to focus on shutting it out of my life. Quality of life is huge – we only get one of these lives, and with the passing of your dad, I know you are even more cognizant of it than before.
Thank you for reminding me to take a breath and just enjoy the beauty of this world, and know it’s not an ugly place. There are ugly people and events in it, but it doesn’t have to color how we live our lives.
tinygami 
I enjoyed this post, and I am happy you are finding yourself. I think it is a good reminder for all of us. One thought:
“The world has become so negative in so many ways but still there is goodness, sometimes you just have to wait longer and look harder to see it.”
The world has been full of negativity since well before the young prince who would be called the Buddha wandered from the palace grounds and discovered there was suffering in the world. We are collectively facing some new and unique challenges, mainly environmental, but in most ways the world is more full of hope for more people than at any time in human history. It is easy, when looking through the strange and selective fisheye lens through which we now view information, to imagine that things are somehow worse. I think it is important to see the totality of what is happening clearly and within the full context of human experience. This is not ignoring our troubles but seeing how they fit within the whole and why. I think this is a better place from which to solve problems.
Similarly, person cannot solve their own problems by only focusing on the negative in their lives. Quite the opposite. Rather you solve most of them, as you so eloquently expressed, by building on the positive that is so often unrecognized or even rejected and letting them displace the things that don’t serve us. The same goes for societies, and the best place to start is within your own life. Happy New Year!
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Thank you for your thoughtful reply Neil. I do agree there is plenty of reason to hope and there are plenty of people who are hopeful.
The challenge with the negativity I struggle with is that it can inundate my thoughts if I am not conscious of my thought processes. At their most basic form there are messages to be heard but after one has heard them a continuous barrage of repeated information (even if each new incident or story is unique unto itself) simply becomes noise. Taking each thing I learn, piece by piece, and creating a reaction whether it be acceptance or a call to action is all I need to know of it to process it and move forward with my own life. It is as you said, “letting go” of “the things that don’t serve us.” I see now that for years there are certain situations and people who have brought noise to my life that have had no purpose but to diminish me if I allow it. After careful consideration I’ve decided to no longer do so.
Wishing you and yours a Happy New Year too!
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Stacie: thank you so much for blessing us with another blog post. Life is a journey. I am delighted you have found a place and relationship where the life-giving spring that exists in all of us is allowed to bubble up again. I wish you a happy 2016 and anticipate being blessing by many of your good words!
LikeLike
Fred I also wish you a happy 2016! Thank you for your kind comment. I appreciate your happiness for me. It’s been a rough couple of years. Most recently my father passed away. Thankfully, I’d just been to visit him less than two weeks before he died. I’ll be sharing a blog post about him very soon.
LikeLike
I think I will be coming back to this post of yours often. It is a great reminder to me. I also made a huge change in my life over the past year, moving across the country (but in the opposite direction as you) and have again found some of the negativity that I had before, but just have to focus on shutting it out of my life. Quality of life is huge – we only get one of these lives, and with the passing of your dad, I know you are even more cognizant of it than before.
Thank you for reminding me to take a breath and just enjoy the beauty of this world, and know it’s not an ugly place. There are ugly people and events in it, but it doesn’t have to color how we live our lives.
LikeLike