And so, we come to the 31st of March, which also happens to be the last day of the first quarter of 2020.
As I sipped my first few mouthfuls of coffee a couple of hours ago, I mused to myself about how — for probably the last five or six years — we have come to the end of the year with the overriding thought "Next year surely HAS to be better!?!?"
Wrong again, it would seem.
These are turbulent and unpredictable times, in which we live.
Watch Sunsets!
Silver Linings, and All That Rot...
I have long been a big believer in the value of gratitude; of putting our focus on the good things we do have, rather than giving our energy to everything we perceive as being wrong with our lives.
Considering that, I find that there is no shortage of things I am grateful for; but somehow it feel like those "things" seem to get a little smaller every year.
It is as if the "scale" of things feels unbalanced.
I'm really grateful for the excellent pizza we had last night; not so grateful that one of our best friends died of cancer.
I'm really grateful for this beautiful sunny morning; not so grateful for world economic collapse and pandemics.
I am grateful for the beauty of spring!
"Think Globally, Act Locally..."
It was a popular buzzphrase for creating change in the world, a few years back.
"Beneath the surface," that slogan was really an invitation to consider where we realistically have the CAPACITY to influence the outcomes of actions and events in our lives.
Truth is, we CAN'T stop a pandemic. And we CAN'T stop looming unemployment. We CAN'T stop our friends from dying of cancer. We CAN'T stop hurricanes and earthquakes.
All we can do is... our own "BEST," within our own personal contexts. And then we have to make peace with the very real possibility that doing our personal best will — most likely — have absolutely no direct impact on the greater scheme of things.
This tiny daisy is only 1/2 inch across!
It's easy to fall into a pattern where we grow preoccupied with railing at other people — or "the world" — for their failure to "comply" with how we feel the outcome of everything should go.
To use a recent "local" example in this community... do we choose to pervasively rage away at Justin Sun for what we perceive he "did to us," or do we direct our energies at making our own little corner on Hive the best it can possibly be?
I choose the latter.
Signs of spring...
Busy Day Ahead!
For the moment, I am going to take my feeble attempts at staying positive to work on my eBay businesses. eBay declared that I can have 50,000 free sales listings, as part of their efforts to "keep things going," so I'm going to avail myself of that offer.
It would be easy to fall into "who cares, so what... nobody's buying anything these days!" thinking and just sit in front of the computer, scouting for the latest COVID-19 or Economic news to instill fear and hopelessness... but why?
I'd like to think that in my little corner of the universe, I am taking action to move forward, rather than getting stuck.
And with that thought... thanks for reading, and you all stay healthy out there!
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(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 20200331 10:02 PDT
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