Zen Queen

I once wrote a post about disaster preparedness. While most of the feedback was agreeable and positive, a couple commenters complained about my negative attitude and my focus on a bleak future.

Generally, I try to write about things that accent the positive. So imagine my surprise when I received a string of e-mails poking at my pollyanna viewpoints. Clearly, I must be a fake person because I never post about anything controversial or negative.

I confess this has me baffled.

Just for the record...I'm mostly a level-headed individual. Life has taught me the futility of living a wildly emotional existence. Yeah, there are things that piss me off. I try to take direct action instead of bitching about them. And there are things that bring me joy. I try to share them without boring my friends to death.

Life is a long string of ups and downs. I can complain about the downs or I can deal. At this point, dealing seems to be the most pragmatic approach. There are so many others out there coping with much worse circumstances. Why should I add my puny complaints?

It seems to me we spend entirely too much time focusing on the minutia of life. We don't communicate. We post pretty pictures with someone else's words printed on them. Is that because we have no words of our own? Perhaps.

Why not invest in some contemplation time, some time to think or meditate or consider the world around us? When was the last time you stopped for five minutes and thought about something other than self? Not in anger or despair or euphoria, but just a calm ponder on the universe?