Don't waste time being offended

A deep thought for those I love in a world of taking offense and darkness... One time when AZ (he's my youngest son) was a few months old my brother, my oldest brother Tim shook him unnecessarily screaming in his face and then laughed.  Lets be clear he did this just for the hell of it! He'd been drinking as usual. I took my baby away from him, I yelled at him and we all sat back down to visit.  Later Timmy apologized picked up AZ and did it again! That night my other brother, Tom (I call my little brother he's seven years older than me) slept on the floor by my daughter AA  who was sleeping on the couch, he did so with a gun in his hand --  I'm only assuming that it was because he was afraid of what might happen. My point here is I was offended I was so offended that I didn't speak to my brother Tim for 10 years.  My brother Timmy never shook me or struck me, I admired him and looked up to him so much. He was fun, funny, loving, he told the best stories, he had the best laugh, he could be kind generous and hilarious. He was a great worker. A soldier to be proud of.  He loved carpentery work and brick work.  When he came home from Panama I didn't think there was anything in the world better or cooler than Tim Michael McCoy my brother a green beret!  Don't get me wrong he could scare the crap out of me he had serious PTSD when he came home from Vietnam and he drank way too much! But I regress, Back to my point I was offended And because of that wasted 10 years of not talking to him. While social media allows us to all get to know each other and be closer we can also be offended. While friends, family, neighbors think other friends family and neighbors don't live life right or are not doing whatever they think they should be doing one can be offended. I just want to take this opportunity to encourage us not to be offended.  To let ya'll in on a little secret I don't use or appreciate the Fword, I don't like porn, I don't like some politics, I dont care for some of the memes that get posted!!!  But if I'm friends with you on social media its for a reason maybe I admire you, or I really am interested in your outlook on life, maybe I love you, I love your kids and I love being able to see you through the marvelous invention of technology. I don't know why I didn't get to know some of you better than others of you but another little secret - I'm not deleting you. I'm not walking away offended!   Everyday and every night I pray for good things to happen in your lives and for you to like yourselves and be your best selves to and for those you have in your family here and now.  Start now to Not be on the defense always being offending, putting up walls, blocking interaction, connections we all need! Choose instead to Be Positive, no regrets of 10 years that you will never ever get back being offended. I do what I can when I can to support you and know you with what is available to me. This world teaches us to be offended let's choose to not be. I should have told Timmy "you're an idiot" and moved on versus my choice of being prideful and holding a grudge only making Me jaded and dark.   I love my brother and I miss him.  #spreadthelove #standtall #volunteerPTSD #findjoy #LightTheWorld #dontBeOffended #beforgiving #usewisejudment #lovetheoneyourwith #dontJudge #familiesareforever #peaceout

I am grateful for "O" - Optimism

I am grateful for the attitude of Optimism

I am probably not a very optimistic person.  Someone ask me why I don't come out of my house more, do more with other people? - my answer to her that day was "People are stupid",   it's kinda haunted me that I actually said that out loud or that I even thought it.  Since then I've been more aware of that tough and attempted to be more optimistic and have more faith in people.  After all my mom raised me with a couple poems about that, that should have helped me since I know the poems and President Hinckley said the following about it;

 "We have so much to live for, so much to hope for!  Humanity is essentially good.  We are all of one great family.  We can give strength to the voice of hope. We can give thanks to those who work for peace. We can give added attention to those who feed the hungry and bind up the wounds of conflict. To the extent we cultivate this virtue of OPTIMISM, we will bless all the word's people!"

and Mother taught me:

Mr Meant-to has a comrade,
And his name is Didn't-do;
Have you ever chanced to meet them?

Did they ever call on you?


These two fellows live together

In the house of Never-win, 

And I'm told that it is haunted,

By the ghost of Might-have-been.

And

"Cynics do not contribute, skeptics do not create, doubters do not achieve."  idk who said this  (mom)!

And

"A young couple came to see me a while ago.  Six months earlier, they had been married. They had declared their love one for another. They had pledged their loyalty one to another. Now, the young man came to my office disillusioned, bitter, and heartbroken. His wife, he said, did this and that -- simple little things of small consequence, such as leaving the dishes undone when she left for work in the morning.  And nothing seemed to make her happy. Then his wife came in, a beautiful girl of great talent. She spoke of her husband's faults. He was stingy. He did not pick up his clothes. He was careless. Each had his or her faults, every one of which was easily correctable. The problem lay in the fact that these two had a stronger inclination to emphasize each other's faults than to talk of their respective virtues. With a little discipline, each could have changed. WIth a little desire, each could have spoken with a different tone.   But neither was willing. They had permitted a negative attitude and outlook to destroy the sweetest, richest association of life. They had thrown away with careless and sour words the hopes and dreams of eternity. With criticism and shouting, they had violated the most sacred of all relationships.  Criticism and pessimism destroys families, undermine institutions of all kins, defeat nearly everyone and spread a shroud of gloom over entire nations." 

--Gordon B Hinckley

My plea, my pray is for me and you to find the good, be positive, be still in the noise and look for the positive -

 BE OPTIMISTIC!