Thursday, July 28, 2011

Attitude Adjustments



I could get all funky about the Code Orange air today, but I'm not going down that road. Tuesday and Wednesday were beautiful summer days, hot but not too humid. I was out and about both days, walking, thinking, taking pics and smiling. Hence, staying indoors today is OK.

Once upon a time I believed good health was everything, but I've changed my mind. It's ATTITUDE that makes all the difference. I know people who are very ill, but their positive attitudes, hopefulness, good humor and generous spirits help them enjoy life no matter how much pain or discomfort they experience, or how limited they are in terms of what they can and can not do. I am in awe of these people. Likewise I know people who are perfectly healthy, but sour of mind/spirit. They suffer like crazy. My heart goes out to these people. Lord knows if they could improve their moods, they certainly would. We never blame those who suffer from physical ailments. Why do we shake our fingers at those who suffer from wounds of the spirit, mind and heart? (I do it, too, actually. I try not to.)

According to my cosmology, people work through things physically, mentally, spiritually - which means it's not possible to always be positive. I'm not one of those folks who thinks everyone SHOULD be happy all the time. It's such a mean-spirited idea, isn't it? It's like the dream of a diet that works for everyone. If such a thing existed, wouldn't everyone weigh exactly what they think they should?

Sometimes I wonder if perpetually happy people have the capacity to evolve in the same way as those willing to drop periodically into their own spiritual quicksand. Maybe I'm thinking about it because I've suffered lately in mind and spirit. I struggled for awhile, I sure did. I would like to believe the struggle served some purpose. What do you think?

Climbing out of it, the world looks even better than before my downwards spiral. The dips and flights of spirit are alchemical, intrinsically human, too. But it sure is nice to rise above the horizon again. Oh yeah.

13 comments:

The Bug said...

Attitude really does make such a huge difference - last week I was morose & today I'm not. Has anything really changed? Nope. I just feel lighter of spirit for some unknown reason. And I'm going to enjoy that feeling until I head back down again.

Reya Mellicker said...

So something moved through you, Dana - besides pee I mean. These things are like weather fronts. So interesting!

Rebecca Clayton said...

I think you're right about that "spiritual quicksand" having a purpose, although I don't know that I'll ever understand it. Maybe it's just about saying , "Hey! It's quicksand. How about that? I'd better crawl out carefully."

Maybe it's just to make you appreciate a nice shower afterward.

Glad you're feeling better.

Elizabeth said...

I do think we should at least TRY to be cheerful unless something awful id happening......
This is the day that the lord has made --let us rejoice and be glad in it

now I sound like blinking Pollyanna.....

Yes, some people were absent the day they gave joy out

they are sort of 'joy-suck' people who drain everyone around them.
Can we blame them? Not really, any more than we can blame them for having red hair or short fingers.

However, I do think your horrid, enervating weather is not having a good effect on people in your town.
Enough said.

Yesterday I swam in the Atlantic and it was bliss.

oxox

Linda Sue said...

When I still had hormones and periods- it was a sort of welcomed week out of the month to be morose- intense-inward,dark and crumpled...It is a cycle after all.I always thought that males were disadvantaged that way. Now that those things have been removed surgically as well as age related I find that there is not a time set aside to take in and release the human aspect of grim reality. I like the idea of setting aside the time it takes to balance the great and not so great without the happy enlightened folks looking sideways at you. This planet- being human on it- is not bubble gum and walks on the beach in the perfect sunrise...it's this and it's that and, though concepts like "forgiveness" come in handy, I suppose-there are out of whack horrors that really can not be "forgiven".( just watched an old documentary by Alfred Hitchcock filmed in Germany at the end of WW2- I didn't mean to- I got sucked in - I shouldn't have...)Don't know what sort of f-ed up lesson there is in all of the horror- makes no sense at all.Clearly we as humans have not learned from it...I need a week set aside to weep and be dismal- at least a week- then back to bubble gum and a walk on the beach with my guru, Dexter. Let it roll, it is what it is.

Reya Mellicker said...

Thanks. All of these comments are very wise, thoughtful.

If only the world (and we) were rational. Everything would be crystal clear. Hmmm ...

Oh well.

steven said...

man oh man reya there's been some sort of something moving through me that has left me boondoggled and corn swaggled and whatever other ulled you can come up with. it's like there's not much coming my way and maybe i need to let that be the way it is but like a ride i had just a few days ago where i bonked and my legs were jelly but i made them push me the twenty km home up hills and through a wind that looked me in the eyes and stayed there no matter which way i looked!!! i'm trying to learn from this messiness and i thank God i got to see you through something so similar. a big old realignment, a shake up, a drop everything and run, or just plain stand still sort of state of mind and being. ya know what i mean sister?! steven

Reya Mellicker said...

Steven I know EXACTLY what you mean.

Cyndy said...

I think that mood swings are useful because they enable us to appreciate happiness with a greater intensity than might be possible if happiness was our only mood. Not that mood swings are fun...

But if we have to strive for happiness it feels that much better when we get it.

Pauline said...

Perhaps we are responding to the mood of the collective consciousness. Some think we are so far removed from nature that it cannot affect or direct us. Maybe they're wrong.

Reya Mellicker said...

We are part of nature, so we cannot remove ourselves from it in any way. That we think we can is a rather hilarious delusion.

I'm immersed in the damn natural world at the moment. Not enjoying it either! Put me in a hermetically sealed bubble, please?

Just kidding.

ellen abbott said...

While I agree that the natural cycle of mental health swings through a series of highs and lows...I always think of it as all three of my bio-rhythms being down at the same time (I read that somewhere, somewhen ago). I think there are people though who choose discontent and then blame their discontent on the outside world instead of realizing that they generate it themselves. so, yes, attitude IS everything.

Reya Mellicker said...

All 3 biorhythms tanking at the same time? That makes sense to me!