Negativity

Today, I had a talk with Kaitlyn about negativity.  It wasn't an out of the blue conversation started to kill the time, it was more of a "I cannot stand to hear you whine about another thing in the next 5 minutes" conversation built out of necessity.

Kaitlyn is normally a pretty happy go lucky, grateful for anything kinda kid, but yesterday and today has been whine, whine, whine and I just don't like that attitude.

I'm sure that at least some of it is because of hotel after hotel trying to make it back home to her toys, pool, playground, TV, comfy bed and so on and so forth.  And normally, I have patience for it, accept it and move on with it.  But, I'm also missing all of the above, extra space, sleeping past 5:30 or so, home cooked food, living out of my closet and stuff like that and the whining and negativity of it all was driving me insane.

So we talked.  We talked about how it really isn't that big of a deal if you have to be patient for 20 minutes while Daddy looks in a store, and it really isn't worth whining about if your pb&j at the restaurant is touching your fries.  And it sounds really ungrateful if you have just been through 3 beautiful states and done as much as she has in 2 weeks to really complain that I got you a regular water instead of a berry water.  And the conversation got me thinking.

I try really hard to not be judgmental, and I like to think that the majority of the time I'm pretty confident that the majority of the time I succeed.  It doesn't mean that I'm even close to perfect or that I don't have to constantly stop myself from it, but at least I try.  I'm also a big fan of being positive.  I do believe that in life we are responsible for our own actions.  I heard someone say something the other day and I wish I could remember where so I could give it proper credit: "You can control the choices you make in life, you cannot control the consequences" and I completely believe this.  I do believe that we are responsible for not only our own happiness but also for how we react to things in our life.

No matter how devastating a part of your life is, you chose how you live your life after.  You're also responsible for making the choice to live that life.

I think that a way a person puts themselves out there is a huge depiction of one's character.  I personally prefer to associate myself with other positive people, people who are uplifting and supportive, positive and free of drama.

As time goes on, I think I find myself really turning away from the drama, the bashing and most of all the negativity.  Life is so short, why waste your time on things that don't matter?  Or waste your time wallowing in self pity?  Or worse yet, self destruction?

Life is short and nothing is promised, be sure to live every day to the fullest and be proud of the life you live and the character you display :)