You know the old saying, "misery loves company?" It is totally true. Before I changed my life, including my attitude, I didn't want to be around positive people. They got on my nerves. In fact, I thought, these people are living on a cloud and have never experienced any hurt or pain in their lives. I thought, if they had, there is no way they would live on this positive plane. But then, one day, something changed in me. I made the decision, the CHOICE, that life is short and I would much rather live it to the fullest with happiness in my heart rather than negativity and cynicism. When I was in Africa, I saw people, children, in the worst conditions I could imagine. Let me describe some: sleeping on pieces of wood tied together to make a bed, flies and bugs crawling on them while they slept, drinking water that they also washed their clothing in and bathed their animals in and eating whatever they could get their hands on. When I worked in New Orleans, I saw children who lived through horrid circumstances. For example, a child came to after school club and was sitting at the table coloring a bright happy picture and humming a song. I said, hi Vincent!! You sure are singing a pretty song. He knodded and smiled to show me his picture. He asked me after if I would walk him home and I did. As I walked him up to the door his mother came out and asked me if I had had behavior problems with Vincent that day. I replied that I hadn't and it was a good day. She smiled and said she was glad because his father had been shot and killed in a drive by the night before and she was worried he would act out because of it. The next day I took Vincent for ice cream to talk to him about it. He sat there enjoying his ice cream and my heart was breaking for him. I gently brought up the subject and he said, I'm ok, I'm the man of the house now. Of course he missed his father and he was heart broken and he will have deal with that loss but at that time, that didn't rule his life. Since I have changed my life and my attitude, I have had people NOT want to be around me because of it. They say things like, not everyone is like you; not everyone can just make the choice to behave this way or that. I say to you, YES they can!! YES YOU can!! I have reasons to not believe in positivity, I have reasons to be bitter and angry and hold grudges if I want. But that negative energy just feeds off of your soul and swallows up any bright spots. In that life, my pleasure came from cynicism and tearing people down and that is not the life I want for myself, nor is the life I want for my friends. We all have choices on how to behave. YES, things are going to happen that cause negative feelings, but what makes or breaks us is how we choose to deal with those negative feelings. Will you choose to turn the negative into a positive or will you choose to feed more negative with the negative. The children and adults I had the ultimate priviledge to work with in Africa taught me many things (which is ironic since I was there to teach them). One thing tha has always stood out for me is the life they led and how they lived it. They have NOTHING!! Seriously, no electricity, no running water, no "grocery stores" or Walmart, not even a clock. And they were happy. One of my most favorite pictures that I took in Africa was a picture of a child (in the pic you cannot tell she doesn't have any clothing on) with a pair of torn underwear in her mouth. She had NOTHING but this child was a bright spot in my life while there. I was home sick so bad the first week I was there and playing "jump rope" (I use quotations cause it was with a very long piece of string) with this child made ME so happy and she had a blast too. She didn't care about the newest dolls or newest barbie or a ds or an xbox. She was happy with anything because she made that choice to be happy with anything. I could apologize to those "friends" who have no desire anymore to be around me because I am positive, but I am not going to apologize for choosing a real life. I am sad at the loss of these friends, but I am not giving them the power to ruin my day or my life because they don't want to be around me. I do have problems and things that initiallly worry me, but I am not going to let that run my life or my attitude. I want to be a person of encouragement or love and joy and PEACE. Peace had never been a constant in my life, but it is now and I plan to keep it that way. I hope you will too because there really is no better way to live. Make the choice people and choose to keep your life in the positive. I will still love you if you don't and I will be there for you if you need me, but be prepared for me to hug you, encourage you and then ask you.....how can we choose to make this a positive situation?? I Love you all!! <3