**Note** I feel like I need to preface this with – The events below happened about 30 years ago – my recollection of this story could be a bit exaggerated. No animals or children were harmed or neglected in the making of this story. Child services do not need to be called {if for no other reason the child survived and is now fully grown adult}.
In the mid 1980’s I was just learning to do things on my own, sometimes because that’s what I was taught, sometimes because ‘I CAN DO IT MYSELF!!’. I was excited to learn the ingredients of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich {don’t judge, I was like 4} and really wanted one. After looking high and low for my mom to make it for me {read: turned my head to the left and right with no mom in sight} I decided to make it for myself. I got a knife from the drawer, the peanut butter from the cupboard, the jelly from the fridge, and the bread from the freezer – because that’s where bread should live. My dad has always taught me that the middle of everything {especially brownies} is the best so I got two pieces of bread from the middle of the loaf…
To my amazement and awe the slices had this beautiful blue-y, purple-y, green-y swirly color. MY MOM BOUGHT ME TIE-DYE BREAD. I was so excited, I had the best mom ever – and to top it off she wasn’t there to tell me that I was putting too much jelly on my tie-dye PB&J. About 2 cups of jelly into making my sandwich {yes, you can put almost an entire jar of jelly on a single piece of frozen Wonder bread} my mom comes into the kitchen from her all-night rave…or binge watching Cheers… or listening to her super cool WalkMan…or whatever moms did in the 80’s and see’s what I’m doing {mostly because I want to show her how much I LOOOOVED the new bread} and immediately smacks the knife out of my hand and takes away my creation.
Well, of course, I throw a hissy fit. Here I am proudly doing something for myself and she had to rip it out of my hand. HOW. DARE. SHE.
The bread was not tie-dyed. It was incredibly, disgustingly moldy. My mother didn’t want me to eat mold.
Still devastated, I had to eat ‘yucky’ homemade pancakes instead {I’d used all the jelly}.
So what does this have to do with anything {other then show you that 4 year olds are pretty stupid}? You train yourself to find the ‘bad’ in a situation. Four year old Crystal was super excited for her swirly mold bread – not knowing any better. If you have to train yourself to find the ‘bad’ why can’t you retrain yourself to find the ‘good’? Find those ‘silver linings’ that make a bad situation a little more bearable?
I challenge you to find the good in every situation or event in your life. I challenge you to seek out the silver linings that help get you through the day when you’re grieving – or just having a particularly hard day. I challenge you to find two rainbows for every storm cloud.
I’m not saying it’s going to be easy sometimes. I’m not even saying that 2 rainbows ≥ 1 storm cloud. What I am saying is that focusing on the positive {the beautiful swirly bread} instead of the negative {the fuzzy mold} your perspective on life may just begin to shift. Positivity begets positivity.
Until next time friends, enjoy some swirly bread and get grateful.
Crystal
