BE GRATEFUL FOR THE GOOD

Greetings friends, followers and listeners,

My apologies for being a little late here with my Christmas and New Years greeting. In fact, heck, now that I look at my blog post’s I realize that I need to apologize for being late for my Thanksgiving greeting too! Jeez!!! You would think that it was the holiday season or something and that I had a good excuse to slu" o"! Uh...hold on...hey...wait a minute... The holiday season is over...crap!.. Oh well, I am all out of excuses. All kidding aside, it has been a little over 2 months since my last blog, so for those of you who were wondering, yes I am alive and all is well.

Christmas and New Years Eve have come and gone and here we are at the dawn of a New Year. I do hope that those of you who are reading this did have a warm, loving, safe, happy Christmas and New Year’s celebration with your loved ones. I realize that with all of the political and economic upheaval in our country right now, coupled with the pain and fear of the recent fatal and tragic school shootings, an unfortunate and frightening event which seems to be occurring more frequent in our country, that it can be quite hard to focus on the good things that DO surround us on a day to day basis, especially during the Holiday Season.

I am no stranger to that feeling at all. In fact, I have always been prone to seeing the glass half empty. Keeping a positive attitude about problems in my life has been a struggle for me ever since I can remember. However, I have made some personal progress in that department over the past couple of years. Yes, I do slip, but I am blessed to have loved ones and friends around me who will call me out on it, remind me of the destructive power of attitude, and who are not afraid to pull me into serious conversation about it.

We all have problems in our lives. Big problems and small problems. Sometimes it is hard to come to terms with the fact that to some extent problems will always be a constant in our life, and in our world. But how we feel and how we let problems a"ect us is mostly up to us. It is a personal choice. It takes a constant awareness and practice to concentrate, recognize and appreciate all of the good things that happen in your life every day. For every one thing that goes wrong in your life on any given day, there is probably a very long list of things in your life that have gone well. Things that you should stop recognize and give thanks for – every day.

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to do my absolute damndest to think POSITIVE and to always see the good possibilities in every situation, no matter how harsh it may seem. This is not easy for me and it may not be easy for you. But it is worth a try and it does work. You do not have to let the actions of others, and possible circumstances beyond your control get you down. They do not have to seriously a"ect your life, emotions and attitude. It is a choice. Your choice. So as you embark on this New Year make a serious conscious e"ort every day to CHOOSE to be happy and to be extraordinarily grateful for all that you do have and all that does go right in your world. The trickledown e"ect this will have on those in and around your life will astound you.

Happy New Year!
Jeff Pike