CRANKY (Anne Stuart)
posted by Anne Stuart
on
Monday, January 15, 2007
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No, I'm not cranky. We're in the midst of our first heavy snowstorm this season, I'm wrapped in a down throw, drinking Tab, about to work on a book that's coming very well indeed. My children are safe. My husband loves me. I've got cats and dogs wanting to cuddle with me, and even if money is scarily tight, sooner or later more will come in (I don't get paid until I turn things in, alas). I'm fat as a hog, but if the snow tapers off enough I'm going to join Weight Watchers tonight, my house is a disaster but I'm slowly working on it, I've got wonderful friends (mostly living far away but c'est la vie). In other words, I'm peaceful, content, life is life, good sometimes, bad others.
However .... people like cranky stuff. People like snark. It's so much easier to be witty and clever if you're dissing something. Look at Andy Rooney -- whine whine whine. Bitching is interesting, entertaining, amusing, and life is definitely worthy bitching about. You can always find something to go off on if you just look.
The thing is, I'd rather not look. I haven't had the easiest of lives -- stuff I take for granted, bad stuff, is absolutely foreign to many of my friends. People die. People get strung out on alcohol and drugs and break my heart. Childhood stinks, cruelty abounds, life is hard.
But there are all sorts of splendid things along the way, and you can focus on the bad or you can celebrate the good. And I'm a celebrate the good kind of person.
It might make me boring. It might make my blogs less entertaining when I'm not going off on a stranger to get a few chuckles. But as the immortal Popeye said, "I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam."
I dump my darkness into my books. That's where it belongs. I can take all the hurt and crankiness and rage and put it into fiction and then work it out. It's a very healthy way to live.
A few years ago there was a wonderful book by Sarah Ban Breathnach called SIMPLE ABUNDANCE, and it was both soothing and empowering. Bad things happen in this life. You gotta notice the good.
So just for day, think of three things you're grateful for. Three things you love. Three positive things in this world. Just pick three good things. It would be nice if you posted them, because it would help others remember that those good things are out there, but at the very least think about them yourself.
I'll pick three. A nice big snowstorm when I (and most people) don't have to go anywhere. Icy cold Tab. Sleeping well last night for the first time in days.
What about the rest of you?
Krissie
However .... people like cranky stuff. People like snark. It's so much easier to be witty and clever if you're dissing something. Look at Andy Rooney -- whine whine whine. Bitching is interesting, entertaining, amusing, and life is definitely worthy bitching about. You can always find something to go off on if you just look.
The thing is, I'd rather not look. I haven't had the easiest of lives -- stuff I take for granted, bad stuff, is absolutely foreign to many of my friends. People die. People get strung out on alcohol and drugs and break my heart. Childhood stinks, cruelty abounds, life is hard.
But there are all sorts of splendid things along the way, and you can focus on the bad or you can celebrate the good. And I'm a celebrate the good kind of person.
It might make me boring. It might make my blogs less entertaining when I'm not going off on a stranger to get a few chuckles. But as the immortal Popeye said, "I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam."
I dump my darkness into my books. That's where it belongs. I can take all the hurt and crankiness and rage and put it into fiction and then work it out. It's a very healthy way to live.
A few years ago there was a wonderful book by Sarah Ban Breathnach called SIMPLE ABUNDANCE, and it was both soothing and empowering. Bad things happen in this life. You gotta notice the good.
So just for day, think of three things you're grateful for. Three things you love. Three positive things in this world. Just pick three good things. It would be nice if you posted them, because it would help others remember that those good things are out there, but at the very least think about them yourself.
I'll pick three. A nice big snowstorm when I (and most people) don't have to go anywhere. Icy cold Tab. Sleeping well last night for the first time in days.
What about the rest of you?
Krissie
Patricia Potter
Tara Taylor Quinn
Maggie Shayne
Anne Stuart
Suzanne Forster
Lynn Kerstan
8 Comments :
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This is just the kind of thing we do in Destination Transformation. (www.essentialhealing.com) Every day begins with gratitude.
1. I live in a house I adore. Not a mansion, and it has some fixing up to be done, but it's warm and loving and welcoming and I love it here.
2. I had a blissfull night last night, and spent a dreary, rainy, lazy morning in bed. You need to do that once in awhile. Mental health and all.
3. My dogs make me laugh on a regular basis. Sally, the Great Dane, really has to "go" but there's is nothing she hates more than rain. She keeps whining to go out, then backtracking like Scooby Doo in the presence of a ghost at the first raindrop to hit her head. I laugh my butt off at her antics. Right now she's napping, but sooner or later, she's going to have to get wet. =)
Thanks for helping me start the day with a smile!
Good things on these rainy day?
Me too on the cuddly dogs and the fact that two of them DID brave the rain to go outside. The third is still reluctant.
Second is my books. I go in every room and there are books. Many, many books to be read and reread. They are to me as the blanket was to Linus.
And third is a holiday with few distractions and I have the whole lovely day to write, write, write.
Hi Anne *Chrissy*!!
I am thankful for so very much, but here goes my short list:
My baby *which I was supposed to never have*
My husband *which everybody said would not work...16 years and counting*
and my health *I was not supposed to make it out of my 20s...late 30s and counting*.
My life may not be perfect, but I am thankful for every bit I receive.
Hugs,
Maithe
1. I am happy that next month I will haave been married to the woman I dreamed of ten years before I met her. My wife was born in Georgia as was my dream. Red hair, a time or two in the kind of curls you see in the Civil War movies. I dreamed it all and these years have mostly been great. Out of this I have three great children, two of whom have kids of their own.
2. I have been all the way around the world. It took me forty years from the first time I left North America until I did the whole 360 degrees. Along the way I have seen many cultures and sampled many different foods. Friends of mine would go wild over McDonald's in Italy or Japan. I wanted what the locals ate. To tell the truth, I don't eat at McDonald's or its clones in the US unless nothing else is open when I am driving late at night.
3. I am happy to be able to communicate with anyone anywhere and the communication has made many virtual friends for me.
Ray
Today I am grateful for:
1. Zicam. I have a cold and three singing rehearsals between now and Saturday. Already the Zicam is working its magic. :)
2. My little space heater. I don't need heating or air conditioning most of the time, but it's been bitterly cold (in the 40s) here the last few days. Well, to me that's bitterly cold.
3. Martin Luther King
James Taylor found better words than I can:
Oh, let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood
That we are bound together
In our desire to see the world become
A place in which our children
Can grow free and strong
We are bound together
By the task that stands before us
And the road that lies ahead
We are bound and we are bound . . . .
This hit home today as I sit here wallowing in the darkness of the book - and it seeps into every aspect of real life. I'm so deep in I can't seem to completely differentiate that which is fictional emotion and that which is real.
I'm thankful for Taylor - my little four pound companion who is warm and loyal and likes me no matter what. I can count on her to be willing to walk with me in the dark hours of the night, or to cuddle in the middle of a sunny afternoon.
I'm thankful for Arizona and blue sunshine even in the midst of a horrible cold front.
I'm thankful for my intensity and my awareness of the spiritual journey I'm here to undertake.
These are really uplifting to read. Some of my friends and I have done this as well. Check out my blog http://3for365.blogspot.com. it's been a fun daily exercise. Many people like to keep it private, but I invite anyone who would like to link up. Best wishes, -Julia.
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