To The Bright Side of the Road

I love movies, so humor me while I use a couple of movie references this morning.

Twenty years ago this month, I graduated from high school.  I was voted "Most Optimistic" in our senior superlatives.  Ha, ha!  That is probably just something they made up for the sweet girl that wasn't the most intelligent, most attractive or most likely to succeed, but seemed happy most of the time.  I may not be quite as cute and perky as I was back then, but being positive and looking on the bright side of life, is something that I am usually pretty good at.

As you all know, the last couple of months, it has been very hard for me to do that.  In the last 2 days we were oh so close to getting to travel next week and I was so frustrated with the people that were getting in my way of me getting to my son.  But in the end, it just wasn't meant to be.  It took some time to accept it, but I have.  All week we had planned to go out to eat last night as a family to celebrate getting TA.  Yesterday I told Stephen I didn't feel like there was much cause for celebration. It was 6:00pm, I hadn't showered all day and the kids were wearing basketball jerseys and we were all just hungry. Stephen said, "We are celebrating."  I said, "Are you saying I need to work on my attitude?"  He said yes.  So I did.  And we celebrated.  We just went to Mellow Mushroom.  I didn't shower, and the kids wore their jerseys, but our attitudes were celebratory, and that made all the difference.



Yesterday the kids and I went to see Inside Out.  It was deep and moving and we all learned something.  It is a movie about our emotions and memories and how they are all important, and all have a place in shaping us and making us who we are.  My favorite character in the movie was Sadness.  (A little ironic since I'm "Miss Optimistic.")  But sweet little Sadness learns in the end that she is important.  She is a critical part of the team and plays a big role in Riley (11 year old girl) growing up and learning from her experiences. Sometimes Sadness actually brings Joy.

The feeling of not waiting on the next piece of paper, the next deadline, etc is oh so wonderful.  Of course we are still "waiting to travel", but that is different.  We have a date. We have a checklist.  We are back to feeling some sort of control over the situation, and we meet Charlie in less than 2 weeks. That really is something worth celebrating.  If I hadn't gone through all of this sadness, I might have taken the joy in moving forward for granted.  Who knows really, but that's what I'm telling myself. So you can just call me Pollyanna today.