Counting the Good

I was reminded yesterday that if we celebrated happiness the way we do unhappiness, our lives would be much richer indeed.  This conversation came not long after a pretty bad couple of weeks.  It wasn't that one truly bad thing happened; no, it was one of those times when one thing seems to happen after another.  When you feel like you can't take one more thing, and then something else comes up.  Your refrain becomes "seriously?", and it feels like you will never escape.

After the fact, I tend to realize that part of the problem is my own reaction to stress.  After a few stressful events, it's like I start looking for more.  I get tunnel vision and only see the bad.  I think I could win the lottery during one of those weeks and only be able to think "Oh no, taxes!"    

So why are the opposite types of weeks so rare?  I don't seem to get tunnel vision for the awesome times nearly as often, though good things certainly happen in my life.  I suppose you could say that it is partially where I am on the pessimist v. optimist spectrum, but I refuse to accept that.  I'm not going to let myself stand in the way of my own happiness. 

As my friend suggested, I think I need to work on counting happy events as strongly as the negative ones.  Though this is not entirely natural to my disposition, I am not such a pessimist that I can't reverse my thinking.  I used to be an extreme pessimist; I was emo as a teen before emo was cool, but I've worked myself to the middle ground.  Now, it is just a matter of bumping myself a little farther along on the optimist side.

So let me start by saying that it has been an excellent week so far.  Kira has been extremely happy, and I've been in a good mood.  My family and friends are all safe from the storms that came through on Monday, and we didn't have any storm damage.  Ben had a good birthday dinner Tuesday night, and Kira was good the entire two hours at the restaurant.

What about you?  What good things have happened for you this week?