A Positive Attitude – Always Striving to Maintain
(Warning: Non-mainstream personal opinion ahead – but please read through to the end… I think it is worth it.)
Why is it that I feel my vote doesn’t really count? Is it because literally two minutes after the polls closed on the West Coast that Obama was declared the winner of Washington, Oregon, and California? He was even declared the winner when even Hawaii and Alaska polls hadn’t even closed. My daughter and her husband had just dropped off their ballots thirty minutes earlier. Did their votes not count either? Was this predetermined even before we cast our votes? (Don’t answer that….I don’t want to know.)
It’s not that Obama won – it’s not that at all. The popular vote even showed him the winner, and I acknowledge that my opinion is in the minority. It’s that they showed the results within minutes of the polls closing here – how could they have known so quickly if it wasn’t predetermined?
This, my friends, is why I avoid politics like the plague. It is a topic that I hate discussing. It makes me feel hopeless, insignificant, helpless, depressed, negative, argumentative, defensive, and stupid. All feelings that I worked long and hard to combat my entire life. Feelings and emotions that are a waste of my energy.
Which brings me to the thinking positively aspect of this post. If you know me at all, you know I’m a positive person. I can’t indulge in emotions or discussion that bring negativity, hate, depression, or anger. I just can’t. I have to focus on positive emotions that bring peace, serenity, joy, happiness, patience and tolerance. So, this means I will be working hard in my life to focus celebrating joy in my life:
- that I have a family that loves me and that I love in return
- that I have two birthdays to celebrate this month: my daughter (turning 29) and my grandson (turning one!)
- that I have a new job (98% done deal) and not suffering any loss of income this month
- that I have a beautiful home, warm, relaxing, just how I want it
- that I have plenty of fabric in the cupboards to sew up into something for me, for my family, for my loved ones.
- that I have grandson who says, “No, Damma, you tan’t doe home” when I have to leave
- that I have a granddaughter who meets me at the door with a huge hug
- that I have a mother who is proud of me and who loves me
- that I have two daughters who I am extremely proud of, and that somehow we managed to survive adolescence in tact and still love each other
- and many, many other positive things to be thankful for
I don’t have any control over politics and the larger world, but I have full control over my attitude and my immediate environment. And that attitude needs to remain positive. Negativity, hatred, fear, self-righteousness, and contempt just breed dangerous emotions that I cannot afford in my life, even in those around me.
This is, after all, Gratitude Month- the month that we give thanks for blessings in our life. What are you grateful for? What blessings are in your life today? I plan to offer up a gratitude post as often as I can this month – because it’s all about the attitude. Attitude is everything, and you can change your attitude and start your day, month, year over whenever you choose.
(And have you noticed how Gratitude has attitude as part of the word? Not a coincidence, methinks.)
Comments are closed.
Little Miss Sew N Sew 
I think you stated that very well. I really think they should not start announcing returns until all the polls are closed and all the votes are counted but we know that will never happen.
at our election party last night, we discussed this very same topic. with only 2% of the precincts reporting, how can they “call it.” my head was spinning from trying to figure out the statistics.
i agree. i hate politics too. i am soooo glad this over. it isn’t that i don’t care about our country, i just hate the campaigning part of it.
congrats on the new job. will you still be working from home? sweet deal. 😉
i, too, realize i have much for which i am grateful. i have a pretty sweet deal.
Well, all I can add is that I’m so glad it didn’t drag on like the 2000 election when Gore should have ran. That was a nightmare…..
I really think it has so much to do with the electoral college. With so much of the population on the eastern seaboard, therefore getting so many of the electoral college votes it makes the west coast feel left out. As someone else mentioned at least we don’t have the Gore repeat, how many times did he want votes re-counted, then the issue he was fighting of popular votes versus electoral votes. My husband has never voted because he feels with the electoral college his vote doesn’t really count. Like you I’ve been looking for the brighter side.
What I found odd was, a few times through the night, they would “call it” for one candidate based on less than ten percent of precincts reporting, and at the time the OTHER guy was winning. (Dont recall seeing this for the pres. race, but several local ones were like that)