Once again, my apologies. Work has been CRAZY. I’m still working on trying to find a good news story for the blog. I know they are happening, they just are sometimes hard to find (because few media outlets are reporting them :p).

In the meantime, I thought it might be nice to talk a bit about how important it is to recognize at least one “good news” story in our own lives each day— and embrace it.

It’s so easy to get caught up in our everyday problems. Some of them, such as failing health and financial difficulties, are huge. Others are quite small, but still have significant impact. Maddening traffic jams and rude strangers can definitely ruin someone’s day.

But there are ways to cope.

I’ve had a few too many small problems (no biggies, thank goodness) in the past few days. Mis-communications at work, longer-than-normal traffic commutes (on a GOOD day, it takes me 45 minutes to travel six miles… yesterday it took me an hour :p), and really pesky little things: like dropping a dish and breaking it… or spilling water all over a newly polished wood table.

Throw in the fact that I have never been accused of being a very patient person ;), and that adds up to quite a bit of frustration by the end of the day.

I had a wonderful reminder yesterday though, that *I* have the power to change that. Simply by shifting perspective.

My son is five. He’s active. And he’s hilarious. 🙂 Yesterday when we got home, he immediately told me he wanted to go back outside. I was quite annoyed by my extra long commute caused by sheets of rain— so I thought he was nuts to want to go back out into it. But without even batting an eye, he scrambled to put on his boots and proceeded to seek out EVERY mud puddle in the backyard… and encouraged me to join him. After watching him for a minute or so, I did. We both got soaked. And I didn’t care. In fact, I was laughing the whole time.

That’s a good news story. One I really needed this morning. When I slept through my alarm and rushed to my closet only to find my clothes balled up on the floor because the cat had gotten to them last night… I almost lost it. But then I remembered I had a pile of muddy clothes already loaded in the washer, and that made me smile.

(Yes, I was late to work. But in the scheme of things, that was okay.)

I have to remind myself all the time: the “big” good news stories are great, because they can renew our faith in people. But really— good news can also be as simple as a change in perspective.

An exercise: the next time someone cuts you off on the freeway, think about something good that happened this past weekend. It could be something as simple as a pleasant conversation you had with your neighbor, or that quiet moment you had to yourself as you read the paper and drank coffee on Sunday morning. Lives don’t always have to be saved in order to bring a smile to your face.

Although I have to admit, heroes are a great pick-me-up. 😉

More heroes soon. 🙂