I took a week away from here. I meant to take a week away from the internet and I failed, miserably. I will try again coming summer (dreaming of reading and sleeping in loads of sunshine while lying in the park).

I was talking to Namra about life and he said he is beginning to think that life is not about how things are, but how things are perceived. And that got stuck in my head. I do feel that a lot of times, the reality of a situation is how it is perceived.  Hence some circumstances, or events are almost neutral until one decides how to react to them or how to accept them.

My younger brother hates to be called a particular name. Every now and then––just to have a go at him––my older brother taunts him with that name and successfully infuriates him. Recently, the later referred to the former with that unacceptable name and instead of the usual response of anger, my younger brother started dancing, jumping about, and repeating the name over and over again laughing (there are moments when I really like my younger brother, this was one of them). My older brother looked surprised, then embarrassed and I joined my younger brother in laughing at him. That name has not been uttered since, and I think even if it is ever used again, it will not be for the purpose of goading my younger brother. He has changed the aura around the name.

I believe in the phrase “seek and yee shall find,” hence I believe that we find the things we search for. And as we get better in searching for what we seek, we become better in finding them. I enjoy searching for the beauty in situations (it’s my little mental game). Some of my friends say I am impractical and not at all sensible, but I am one of the happiest people I know, so I ignore my well intentioned friends. I find my highs in looking not only at how something seems but looking around it, through it, under it, above it, and within it for beauty, or at least for amusement and I always find something good in the bad, and most of the time, that good gets so fat that all I see is it. Which then makes me grateful that the bad had been.

So perhaps next time someone sets out to goad you, you can choose not to get offended. And next time something awful happens, you can try to see how that bad thing can be a good thing, too.

-Jane
P.S. I’ve decided that I love Mondays. Aka moon-days, aka moo-days, aka man-days…