...positive thinking.

I wonder, I wrote in my journal in December 1999, if my biggest need was for more positive thinking. Yes, just a few years ago, I was looking for ways to become the eternal optimist. Instead of clinging to my then-role of pessimist. Too often, I let myself be overcome by pessimism.

I have a good life, and I should rejoice in that, I told myself in 1999.

I went on to write that a pessimist, I suppose, constantly tells himself he wants life to last forever. And so he dwells on the idea that -- well, maybe it won't be forever. So he laments. And he doesn't fully enjoy the life he has now.

What does us in, I speculated, is the constant quest for more this and more that. More money. More luxuries. More possessions. More time. And so to accumulate all this stuff, we think about tomorrow instead of today. We spend today planning for how to accumulate everything we don't have. When we should be embracing and savoring what we already have.

I have to keep telling myself to feel upbeat and to see humor and joy in the twists and turns of life. I have to look outdoors on a cloudy day and think of the clouds as beautiful, as a curtain shielding me from the bright sunshine.

And yes, these clouds bring moisture, which helps plant life grow, and which makes for beautiful scenery. And yes, these clouds give us a nice contrast. After all, who wants every day to be filled with sunshine? There really is something nice that can be said about a cloudy day. Now, that's what I call positive thinking. --Jim Broede