One Good Thing
So, clearly, Create 365 2011 was a swing and a miss. Same goes for Project 365 2011.
I lost momentum on blogging the projects when Spring started to show up. I think Create 365 was more demanding than I was prepared for and then, of course, my camera stopped working in March so I was without one for a month —after I promised myself I wouldn’t let camera malfunctions stop me!
But as the confusing and wonderful Chicago summer gives way to crisp and comfy fall, I think it’ll be easier to nurture my creative impulses rather than ignore them to laze around at the beach (or let’s be honest, stay in and watch cat videos). Man I love Midwestern seasons. I really love each one, even though sometimes they’re really hard to get through.
I also want to start focusing more on the good things than the bad. It’s so much easier to look back on a day and dwell on the 1 or 2 bad things that happened than it is to remember the hundreds of little good things. Apparently this is a primitive human instinct - for basic survival you have to remember bad experiences. But we’re not living in a hunter-gatherer, nomadic everyone-for-herself world anymore, so the negative experiences we remember are stupid things like traffic and the Emergency Alert System interrupting the rerun of a show you’re mildly interested in.
I’ve noticed a lot of negativity in myself lately and I need to be better at remember the good in life and letting the bad go.
So I’m going to try daily (or as close to daily as possible) to post at least one good thing that happened to me today and be grateful for it. I’m constantly relearning that life is too short to waste it holding on to anger and resentment. I will always be a proponent of feeling your feelings, but I need to be better at letting them go when they’ve expired.
Here are some good things that happened today:
1. My aunt and cousin (who I don’t see very often) got into town safely and I got to have a lovely dinner with my aunt, mom, sister, and boyfriend.
2. While en route to the airport to pick up our relatives, my mom and I were in a minor parking lot car accident where no one was hurt, everyone had insurance, the guy who hit us was polite and respectful, and we still made it to the airport in time to pick up Auntie and cousin.
3. A CTA miracle - I was running late to meet my mom to go to the airport and when I got to the corner, a bus was just pulling up for me to hop on. I ran off as soon as it got to the L station, up the escalator, and onto the train. As soon as I sat down, the doors closed. That never happens! A CTA miracle!
For these things and for my life, I am grateful.
