Some people are born with an amazing talent for seeing what is wrong in every single thing. I know such people. They are painful to be around. Pain…full. I imagine being Gwyneth Paltrow’s friend would be like that. Listening to her drone on about how tough it is being a beautiful, movie actress who has recently “uncoupled” and is raising her children as a single working mother with more help than I have fingers might grate me a bit. (yes, she did actually do this recently, OUT LOUD.)
I think why those people bug me so much now is that I’ve come a long way from there – because I was there. I was always looking at what “wasn’t” in my life instead of looking at what “was.” Looking at what is right in your life and looking at what isn’t are two radically opposing ways of experiencing the world. One cultivates the conditions for experiencing more joy, more expansion, more of your basic goodness and good. It’s plowing your little plot of dirt with patience day after day, year after year. Picking up the rocks, fertilizing the soil, watering the seeds and trusting that this care and cultivation will evolve into a beautiful rose garden. The other, well, not so much. It’s like dumping cement on your little plot hoping the flowers will grow anyway.
well said. 