Attitude Is Everything

You know what is really cool?  Being told you have to do something even though you are really tired and have a lot of other things to do and making the best of it anyway.  You know what is even cooler?  When everyone else acts the same way, too!

We had a family fair at a pizza place with my school tonight, and many of us are exhausted and have a lot on our plates, but we knew that we had made a commitment to do this.  And… we just had an absolute blast!  Maybe I am just lucky enough to work with such a great group of people – I don’t know.  All I know is that my attitude going in was that I was going to have a great time – no matter what.  Within the pizza place, we set up a small corner of games for those students whose parents just could not afford the game tokens.  We let the kids play whatever games they wanted as many times as they wanted.  If they didn’t win a prize, then we let them keep playing again and again until they won something.  I could tell that the kids really enjoyed seeing their teachers outside of the classrooms, so why not make it even more enjoyable?  It was such a good feeling to lavish praise on their costumes, and tell them what great sports they were, and enthusiastically greet their parents.  It was so great to talk to my former students, as well.  It is fun to see them feeling successful, but mostly, it was great to see them just having a plain, good time.

It wasn’t until afterward that I realized all that fun was just one decision away.  I could have just as easily gone to this fair and thought, Okay, I am here to put in my two hours worth, and then I am out of here!  But what does that do?

The only thing you can control is how you act in this moment.  You can’t change the past, you can’t control the future, the only thing you can control is how you decide to BE in this very moment.  The present is the only thing that should really matter.  How can I best be of service to my fellow human being, right now?

There is one thing that you need to understand about this blog.  I am not just writing it for other people to read, I am also writing it for me.  Some people who know me and read this, and I mean know me pretty intimately, know that I don’t always practice what I “preach” here.  I have my faults – let there be no doubt!  But this blog is helping me improve as a human being – as a spiritual being.  As much as I love to write, sometimes when I write, things come through my fingers that I do not always anticipate.  It is almost as if I am having an “Ah ha!” moment as I am writing.  I know that some people think that their writing is channeled from some source outside of them, but I don’t believe that.  I believe that as I write, I am reminded of things that I have learned over my lifetime.  Everything I write about is something I know or have known in my past.  It does boggle my mind, however, how frequently I am able to come up with the right story, or example, or anecdote to make a certain point.  Maybe that is the part that comes from a source outside of myself.

All I know is that what I write helps me remember who I really am.  I feel myself changing as a human being as I “put pen to paper,” so to speak.  (put cursor to word processor?)  Writing brings forth the me I think I should be.  I may not always practice what I preach, but at minimum, I am moving in that direction – isn’t that all that really matters?

I have seen a recent uptick in the number of readers in this blog.  I want to thank you for taking a moment to read it.  I often come up with subjects to write about throughout the day, but I sure would like to try my hand at writing about something that someone else asks me a question about or something that someone would like to hear my thoughts on.  It would certainly be a great lesson in impromptu writing for me!  You may either post a comment to this entry, or you may email me directly.  dave at davehatton dot com.

Namaste