I am in the mood I choose. That’s what my wife tells me and it annoys me. When I was little, and would get fussy, mom would poke me in the belly and “let the stream out.” then she would make air escaping noises, “Whisssssssh!!” It tickled I would laugh, and drop the bad attitude. In time I learned to hold onto the anger and it has done me great harm.

They are right. When I let negitivity into my immediate enviroment, I define who and what I am, and I am setting myself up for failure.

Maybe it’s a sense of control, but my first reaction is to be angry. In fact, positive, sunny, happy people tend to irritate me. “How can you be so happy when there is so much mysery”?

There is indeed much pain and saddness in the world. It will not be lightened by my trying to take some of that pain on my shoulders. I am, in fact, contributing to the sadness with my own gloom.

I just read an article which said that experimental results are influenced by the thoughts and attitudes of the observers. This would mean that there are no passive players.

Like actors in a Melodrama, we feed on the energy of the crowd. I have do a bit of public speaking from time to time. I am at my best when the audience wants me to speak well. Musicians play better when the people in the front the part of the Act.

I remember the movement to talk to house plants. If one says positive things the pants would thrive. And I know the strongest humans were the ones who were taught their value and worth when they were children.

But, I don’t always embrace it. Somehow, when I was very young, I got the idea that I was setting myself up by choosing to be happy. I thought it best to expect life to kick me in the teeth and Therfore, that by keeping said teeth clinched it would not hurt so bad.

I was shown how to maneuver through life by my father. He kept his guard up and his frown on his face. Yet, he thought he had a positive attitude. He just keit kept it hidden and protected. I thought being happy, on the surface, was to be vulnerable and foolish.

Bad things are going to happen. If I choose to go thru life with my back in the air, my back hurts. If a grit my teeth I end up with a headache. So, I just have to let it go.

But it is not my first reaction. I often want to be negitive, as if to prove how worldly and tough I am. But, I am a work in progress, and there is hope. Today I choose to be happy.

I can’t control the weather, or traffic, or the stupidity of people in my life. But I control how I react.

Life is hard, might as well choose to be happy.