How are you feeling lately?
As I write this, we are in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Are you desperate for the shelter-in-place restrictions to be lifted? Eager to see your friends and family in person? Or, maybe you are loving this opportunity to retrench, to stay home, to not have to interact with that person in the office down the hall from yours at work.
Or, perhaps you are like me, swinging wildly from one extreme to the other, like a hanging plant reacting to the gusty winds so typical this time of year in Ohio.
Wherever you are, know this: There is amazing power in positivity.
Some days are easier than others. When I wake to a day of sunshine and a clear blue sky, it is far easier to put on the smile and hope for better days to come.
Other days require effort. On those days I have to consciously seek the good. It’s there… Somewhere… Like that pair of reading glasses I can’t find. Where did I put them?
I admit that I favor rose colored glasses. I am much more prone to making jokes, looking for the humor in situations, than I am to wallowing in despair.
This is how I cope with life. I don’t do sad. I prefer happy. Some people find this annoying.
As a kid, one of the nicknames bestowed upon me was, “Grinner”. It wasn’t said lovingly. The other kids were annoyed that I was always smiling. Try as I might, I just couldn’t stop smiling. Instead, I chose to embrace the moniker. And I stopped apologizing for it.
For me, one of the ways I stay positive is to just keep going. Keep on putting one foot in front of the other. Do the next right thing. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be right. It just has to be something.
My friend Nita Sweeney wrote a book on this concept, called, “Depression Hates a Moving Target”. Spot on.
When this pandemic hit, it knocked every event off of my calendar. Every one. My calendar has been wiped clean.
So, why am I still smiling? Because I have to. It’s the only way I know how to exist.
I have to smile. And I have to share that smile. It’s what I do. It’s who I am.
If you want to see how I’m sharing that smile, hop on over to my Facebook page and check out the short form videos I’ve been posting there for the last few weeks: https://Facebook.com/ImNoDummy
I have a choice to make every day. I can shut down, crawl into a hole, pull the blankets over my head, and hope this will blow over soon. Or, I can move. One step. Another step. Do something. Anything. Just keep moving.
I choose to keep moving. How about you?