"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world.
There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half-full,
say: this glass is half full.
And then there are those who say: this glass is half-empty.
The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say:
"What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me?
This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full!
And it was a bigger glass!"
~~ Terry Pratchett

I have a friend who can't see the good in his life. Not all the time ... just some times.

He gets tunnel vision and the only things he can see are the problems. He gets overwhelmed by his failures, by his inadequacies. By this stupid road map he made for himself in college -- you know the one, where you're going to be a millionaire before you are 30 and have 2.5 kids.

I want to throw him a lifeline but I can't. Mostly, he tosses the rope back at me.
I want to show him a portrait of himself the way I see him. He blindfolds himself.
I want to teach him other ways of looking at the glass. He turns away.

Today is one of those days.

Rather than let his choices drag me down with him into the pit of despair, I choose to remember who I am instead. I've done a lot of hard work over the years getting past the problems gifted on me in my crazy childhood, past the abusive relatives, past all of that. They are echoes of a past that has no power to hurt me in the present.

I have learned how to love and how to live. I have found outlets for my creative energies ... and things are moving. Slowly but they are moving. And I refuse to let his choices destroy the joy with which I greet each day.

How about that!

Good news time. Have my first ever art corner -- complete with drawers and closets and mini spotlights that my husband installed specifically for me. I want to write. I want to draw. I want to explore the creative side of me and see what happens. Just because I enjoy it. Because its something I wanted way back in the days when my parents were demanding I stop talking crazy and become a drudge.

Dreams are great but I'm here to tell you, working at making them come true is the real joy in life.

I heartily recommend it.

So here I am. A glass full kind of person at last. Happy in how my life is going. Filled the hope for the future and a fledgling belief that the good things in life can come my way too.

Who would have thought.