A Little Red Rose

Ok so I said I was going to write on my blog and I meant it... shooting for DAILY!

I was thinking today about how can we truly throw away negative thinking (recovering pessimist here) and it hit me...

Look for good and the bad will disappear.

This applies to any situation. I want to share a story.

My father passed away when I was 17 years old. The day he passed away is quite possibly the most vivid memory I have of an entire day in my whole life for two reasons.....good and bad.

The bad: I lost my wonderful father. He may not have been perfect, but I know he loved me. As a parent I see things a lot differently than I did at 17. No one is perfect, especially parents! :)

The good: I had not ever in my entire life felt so much love from so many true friends in a single week as I did the week my father passed away. These were friends that drove twenty miles to our little farm in the middle of nowhere and immediately came to our emotional rescue from the grocery store, the hallway at school, basketball practice or wherever they may have been when they heard the terrible news. I have always looked at the bad side of growing up in a small town, but living in a small town can truly be like having a huge family (which can be pretty miserable at times - written from experience, haha!) But during that one week of my life that small town wasn't "like" my family, it was my family. The good somehow outweighed the bad that week.

I can remember a friend who had lost her mother when she was 14 or 15. When she heard the news that my father had passed, she came to my house with a red rose and had contacted some of my very close friends to start a mission of love for me. I am still so grateful to that friend for her act of truly unselfish love. That one little rose might seem so simple, but to me, it was anything but simple. She really understood grief and sorrow at an age she should not have had to.

Life is full of both good and bad experiences but I know from my own experiences that when the bad ones are looked upon with a deeper gaze that we will see a little red rose. I believe negative thoughts can take over our life so much that we never give ourselves a chance because we are so busy failing in our minds before we even try. I am confident that inside each of us exists a well of talent ready to be drawn up and brought to life. You have to look for your little red rose. It is there. Take a closer look.

Speaking of the good and bad...

The good: My little 4 1/2 year old Ava started pre-school a few weeks ago at a wonderful montessori school close to our home and is loving every minute of it! She has made so many friends and is learning so much. She even begs to go to school on Saturday and Sunday!

The bad: I MISS HER! I didn't think I would miss the interruptions during the day while trying work but ohhhh how I sit in my little workroom and think about how I wish she would come in to ask me for something or just to say, "I love you mommy" and give me a huge hug like she used to always do when she was home. I am focusing on the good, I promise!

The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.

Anonymous - ThinkExist.com