The World is Awful, Be Happy Anyway

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that each Sunday night I try to post a new blog.  Most weeks it comes pretty easy, something hits me and it marinates for a bit and on Sunday night I put it into words.  Hopefully it’s something that provides a little insight to me about my happiness and helps you with yours.  Some Sundays it just doesn’t come and today was one of those days.  So I did what I normally do when the ideas aren’t flowing and I put on my headphones and listened to some music.  Getting fully engrossed in music that I really like has a way of shutting the wheels down for a bit and letting my subconscious go to work.  Tonight, it was a little bit of Yes, there music is so complex that it’s really easily to get lost in what their doing while simultaneously enjoying it.  I didn’t think it had worked for me this time, I had a little dinner, some homemade soup and a little corn on the cob. I was then scanning the web and Facebook and was getting bombarded with the standard unfortunate blast of negativity that both can provide.

It’s easy to get lost in all of the awfulness the world has to offer, war, famine, climate change and perhaps the worst of all, politics.  People are more often than we would like fairly awful to each other.  I think I know where a lot of this comes from, when people feel things aren’t going their way, and particularly if they feel what is happening to them is out of their control they get angry.  Then, they lash out at others.  It’s an unfortunate situation but one we all see too often.

So the world can be awful, but we don’t have to be miserable.  We don’t have to give in to the negativity that others throw at us.  We don’t have to wallow in the bad news in our social media feeds, or the lead stories in the news put before us.  You see for every negativity news story, for every person lashing out, for every unfortunate situation there is a counter point.  The world, I truly believe seeks balance, so for every negative there is a positive.  For every person who cut you off in traffic there is someone who holds a door open for you.  For every negative news story there’s a story about a cute pet or a baby laughing or some kid doing something amazing.  For every war there is a country making progress, a charity doing good things for people.  For every bit of ugliness, there is beauty in the world and often all you have to do is look around.

So given the balance, it’s really up to us as to which one we focus on.  When we’re feeling bad, or we’re tired or out of sorts for any reason it becomes easier to focus on the negative.  You don’t have to do that, make a conscious decision to focus on the good stuff, the positive news, the beauty in the world.  Take the time you need to relax and take care of yourself.  The world might be awful, but it’s also wonderful and it’s up to you which one you choose to focus on, and whether or not you have a happy day my friend. ~ Rev Kane