Virginia Is For Families

I would like to make sure we are on the same page here.

Or maybe not the same page but the same book. Or maybe not the same book but the same floor of the library. I don’t know. We are all so different. Why generalize? But I will say this. I hope you are here because you are an optimistic person or you want to become a more optimistic person. Because that’s what you are going to get here. Optimism. Happy thoughts but not one hundred percent to the point of being obnoxious happy thoughts. For instance, I was not happy going to that meeting on Tuesday and I expressed that feeling. But by the end of the day I was in love with the world. Are you in love with the world much of the time? Would you like to be?

Let me tell you a short story.

Just before the beginning of the 21st century my life had bottomed out after about 35 years of difficult living sprinkled with a few moments of deluded happiness. From about age 14 to age 49 things had not gone well. There were many causes and I’m not going to dwell on them here. Let’s just say that as I approached the big five ohhh I was out of a marriage and a career. Almost everything else was in short supply as well. I was a lonely, sad, introverted mess. But one day I gave it all away and danced for joy. Because I felt God in my heart. And when you experience God in your heart you really don’t need anything else. You may be poor. You may be sick. You may die. But if you experience God as a presence in the room where your miserable self is experiencing these things then they do not matter. Because to experience God is to experience Joy. Period.

I am not in favor of religious dogma of any kind and don’t attend church.

I’m not holding anybody up as a needed catalyst for a religious experience. I’m just saying we can talk to God and if we do it regularly and sincerely He will come to us. It’s a matter of priorities actually. When you give all your stuff away and you are really empty there is lots of room for a really big Presence. And you won’t find a presence any larger than the Big Guy. He doesn’t fit into the tiny spaces we normally reserve for Him..

So I am an optimist and on that day my optimism paid off.

Finally. About two days later as I was moving out of my house Beth showed up to help me move. And it was like the Big Guy had sent me an angel to help with the boxes. When I hit absolute bottom on that day He had prepared a bed of roses for the crash landing. And it really didn’t hurt that much. In fact I was still pretty much sitting on a cloud watching my body bounce off the pavement. But mostly I was watching Beth and thinking she was so different from anyone I had ever known. She was patient and kind. Generous and loving. On and on. And, guess what? She’s downstairs right now! And she is still all those things and more after seven years! I am starting to feel like maybe it’s not for show. What do you think?

So what is the point?

Well, I read blogs. And some of them are full of the kind of suffering I was ever so familiar with in earlier days. And I feel qualified to hope that there can be an end to all that suffering at some point. Happiness is an option here. Because this blog is about Feeling Good. Not me alone. All of us. Because the Big Guy really enjoys these moments when He can do His Thing. And fill us up. Whatever our religious beliefs might be.

So I am here to tell anybody who cares to listen about this.

And I haven’t done it before but I always wanted to find a way to yell it from the rooftops. Blogging is like that in some ways. This blog is about finding beautiful things and taking pictures because beauty is a reflection of the Divine. It’s about trying to encourage people by relating my own experiences because that’s what the Big Guy wants me to do. And it’s about trying to find humor in daily life because it’s there and we need it.

If you hang out here I will encourage you to be optimistic and look for some positive things in your daily life.

I will encourage you to find something that is lovely and take a picture of it. Then maybe even write about it and put it somewhere where you and others can look at it whenever the urge strikes. I will look for other ways we all can express optimism and, dare i say it, love for this crazy, mixed up life that is all around us. And I will try to be a good example on a regular basis of a person who deals with problems in a positive way.

If we all live long enough we are going to get old.

There are going to be messy problems of one sort or another. But we also know that if we work hard all our lives there should be a payoff of some sort. Maybe there should be time to enjoy life and reflect about it. Enjoy the children and grandchildren. Travel. Take pictures. Write. Laugh. Talk to God. Maybe tell your boss goodbye and go find something better or more relaxed to do. The list goes on. But I look around and I don’t see a lot of that happening. Maybe you have it all under control. But for others…

Why not stick you toe in the water. Relax a little. Think like it could happen to you.

Someday it might. And I am here to tell you………

Come on in! The water’s fine!