CHEERS

 How to Stay Cheerful

The only way I know to be cheerful is to be thankful. Positive thinking does not work. It avoids acknowledging pain and sorrow.  Being thankful makes pain and sorrow part of thankfulness. Sorrow is our sister and brother. We cannot avoid the misery of life. It is there.

War, sickness, pain, suffering stare us in the face in Gaza, the Ukraine, famine in Darfur and drug deaths in our city streets. They are real and affect every one of us. The more we absorb them and make them a part of us and our being, the more we can control them and not let them control us.

Here is how I do. it. Very simple, I give thanks to God or the universe or whatever every morning on arising and often during the day. Thank, you, thank you. Wife Ann, Daughters, Leigh, Sarah and departed Jessica, my brother Edwin, family and friends. Thanks for food and drink, including water. Thanks for my health (including arthritis and poor balance). Thanks for a stable government (knowing foolish politicians). Thanks for food, shelter and comfortable daily life. Thanks for offering prayer and giving money to the sick, poor and needy. Thanks for exercise (which livens and hurts my body). Thanks for a funeral plan, which will give my family and me some preparation and solace. Thanks for just enough news to keep me aware and not scared.