I love comments on blogs. Focusing on positives is something we all could benefit from. Thank you for the input!

I went to a very different place. You wrote, “Yes, as soon as the questions go that direction, you felt it, right? Somewhere, deep inside, you see no hope for that for this world.” QUITE CONTRAIRE! What I experienced was a shift of feeling lighter and more optomistic about looking for the best in others, waking up excited and being free of the fear of pain and rejection. I believe it’s a choice and that we can influence others to live with gratitue and expectancy when we step into it ourselves. Maybe the message about no hope is out there, but I don’t hear it. I don’t surround or inundate myself with it. I seek out and surround myself with the opposite and steer clear of the negativity — as much as possible.

The reality we live in is truly what we make it to be. The more I buy into the negative, the more of it a see. When I choose to believe there’s hope and kindness, that’s what shows up! It’s a simple as changing the frame I put around things and what I choose that colors my world.

Your post reminded me of Plato’s “The Cave.” Trapped by ignorance we swear a staunch allegiance to a false belief. It is impossible to “know” everything while we live on this side of existence, because everything we “know” has been retrieved through human senses. As efficient as those senses are in appreciating beauty, they are even more adept at perceiving danger (including danger to our sensitive egos–the little beasts!).

If I believe something to be true, and you suggest a different possibility, my ego shouts, “Hey. He thinks I’m wrong. But I’m smart, not wrong! I won’t listen to another word!” Insisting on being right prompts hostility, and scurries my mind away from carefully considering a new idea. And I lose out. The more vested we are in being “right” the less open to new possibility we become. I think the hardest-driving among us are the most frightened. So sad.

And you’re so right—the only person we can hope to change is ourselves. Thankfully, just as a scowl or a frown is contagious, so is an act of kindness.

Keep flexing your opinion muscle!