Machka 

+1!!

Machka 

And thank you for that.

gregf83 

I don't 'seek' happiness. I am happy and an optimist. I guess I feel sorry for you more than anything. Cheer up! There must be a few things you enjoy in life.

Machka 

Yes, there is a reasonable platypus population here.

The one in the photo is taken in discovery centre, with a research component. They only have a few there, and are studying them to look at breeding patterns and also ways to prevent a particular disease that they are prone to developing.
The Platypus | Platypus House - Australian Souvenir Shop

I have seen them in the wild (while canoeing in Victoria), but they are very elusive.

2manybikes

It must be great after living in North America and now seeing all these animals there.

Roody

Since ILTB couldn't be here, I will say it for him: Who is "we"?

Mobile 155

That is easy Roody, it is the several that are pointing out how he is negitive in this thread.

Or do you feel his has been positive in this case?

Jarrett2

That sums me up well.

Roody

Some were pointing out that he's negative and others were pointing out that he's idealistic. I have no idea if both--or neither--are true. Maybe we should all worry less about imagined personal characteristics that are based on too little data and a partisan axe to grind. Hell, we keep calling him "he" and we don't really know if even that is actually the case. (Mistakes along that line have been known to happen.)

Mobile 155

Yes they have Roody such mistakes have been made. I am not sure however that in this case the usual posters you complain about by name are the culprits in derailing a positive tread you so often call for?

Machka 

I work in a city, and by Friday, I'm feeling edgy ... like I need to get out into the country for the weekend.

Fortunately I live in a quiet outlying suburb, so that helps. A walk to the beach after work improves things during the week. There's just something about the ocean waves and birds ...

Jarrett2

I've been really fortunate for the last 7 years to be able to live out in the country and work from home.

Not driving into the city daily and being able to roll up the garage door and go get lost on country roads for a couple of hours does good stuff for the soul.

Roody

Me too. I love living in the city, but some time spent in wilderness (or a close approximation) is absolutely required on a regular basis. Sometimes it's hard to find the time and money for a deep wilderness trip. Close approximations include a couple local parks and the trails along the Grand River that aren't too far from my house in the middle of the city. Mountain biking has been a good one too--riding my mountain bike a few miles on the road to outlying natural areas, then enjoying the single track.

tandempower

A friend once told me that it takes 100 drops of clear water to dilute every drop of red dye. The metaphor refers to negativity as the red dye, in case it wasn't obvious. Transcending negativity requires forgiveness of self and others. We are all human. The world is not perfect. Maintaining a positive attitude can help but that doesn't mean you shouldn't address problems. It's just that if you address them in a positive state of mind, i.e. with hope and faith that goodness can and will overcome adversity, the negativity of mind doesn't come into play. You might be technically dismayed about a given problem or situation, but you can express that dismay with a positive feeling of hope that doing so plants a seed of goodness in the universe. Dwelling on negativity without hope brings you down but thinking about solutions and feeling hope for things getting better puts you in a positive state of mind.

The best thing anyone can do to support positivity is try to avoid ad hom thinking. Whenever we start focussing on people as negative instead of addressing the things they say from the standpoint of disagreeing with the content, that cultivates negativity. I won't say I'm not guilty of this because if someone attacks me, I usually feel a need to stand up for myself. However, my higher self really just wants to get back into a mode of positive, constructive discussion and avoid all the ad hom bickering, trading insults, etc. Emotional neutrality makes for better and happier online discussion than drama.

mconlonx

Every now and then I do take pause to reflect on how lucky I am to live in a beautiful place. In this case, very southwestern seacoast Maine, with very close access to both the seashore and a tidal river.

I start every morning in a cabin in the woods, which faces a brook, awakened by a cacophony of wildlife. A short walk through the woods up to my son's place for morning ablutions is graced by sunrise over the farm's meadow.

Days I ride, I set out in the AM into the same sunrise over meadows which segues into a tree-canopy covered country road, one which is always in contention for prettiest country road in New England. A left will take me down that road, all dappled sunlight and tree-cover, to US Rt 1 and the commuter slog to work; a right will take me past farms, over a wooden bridge, and through a historic district into town for errands, visiting ex-no.2, or my PT job at the bike shop.

It's way too easy to take such beauty for granted, if it speeds by on a daily basis or if my mind is elsewhere. But again, the lucky part is that sometimes the mundane grandeur and spectacle overwhelms whatever petty and fleeting things might be occupying my mind to shock me back into the moment and humbly appreciate what I have. Sunset coming back from town at that wooden bridge often does it. Pink, orange, purple clouds, darkening blue skies, more woods than development along the river's edge, the river reflecting the sky. The scent of the ocean, sometimes the mud flats, and very often even the stink of fish from the lobster pier add to the experience, not in at all a negative way. That milieu has sometimes stopped me in my tracks, pausing at the railing of the bridge, with the amateur fishermen, to just stand there and let it all sink in.

Followed by a twilight ride back home down the same pretty road I often ignore or to which I zone out with too many other thoughts crowding out appreciation for what's right in front of or around me.

I am blessed and blissed.

Roody

That's a beautiful and inspirational post. Thanks for putting this in a way that even I can understand. I wish the politicians of both parties could read this before their next debate!

It's always hard to find a balance by being positive, but not neglecting the problems and adversities that are part of reality.This is something to which I also aspire, but often fall short. Like you said, in order to find that balance, it's important to address the content or the topic rather than the individual. Somebody who seems negative is often only having a bad day, or the topic is a sore point for some reason.

Roody

Very cool post.

For me, and I suspect for you also, part of the blessing is to have learned that approaching the world more slowly, as on a bike or on foot, will open us to the beauty that is there waiting for us. Getting out of the mindset of the automobile has allowed me to slow down and see the world's beauty--even in the humdrum city of Lansing, Michigan.

When I was young, I had an English professor, the writer Janet Kauffman, who wrote about the "beauty spots" of an industrial wasteland, which her characters discovered because they were homeless and too poor to get around in a car. This, among other things, always inspired me to "slow down and look around."

Roody

Wow! Two great posts in a row from mconlonx and tandempower. This can be a wonderful forum, even with its problems.

Walter S

That may eventually become impossible to manage, as the universe continues to expand.

tandempower

Wow, thanks for the super-positive response. I especially like your last observation that, "somebody who seems negative is often only having a bad day, or the topic is a sore point for some reason." It's a reason to give people second-chances and try to look a little deeper at the possibility that they might be trying to express something substantial besides just negativizing for the sake of attack. Of course many times people are doing just that, but it's hopeful to think they're just having a bad day or offended because of a sensitivity they have instead of assuming automatically they're just malicious trolls 100% devoted to social nastiness and nothing else.

Machka 

Nice!


We spent a couple years living in a really small town in Victoria (Australia), and I miss it. I miss things like waking up in the morning and hearing the cows moo-ing.

Machka 

One of the photography forums I used to post in had weekly contests with different topics each week. One of the contests had the topic, "5 Minutes From Home".

The idea was that we would take a photo of something within a 5 minute walk of where we lived.

First up came the complaints ... "I don't have anything I can take a photo of within 5 minutes walk of where I live!!!"

And the response ... "Look closer."

Then the photos started coming in.

And then the comments ... "I've never really noticed that before!"

The idea was, for one week, to get the photographers to take a step away from the landscapes and wildlife and everything else they usually photographed, and look at their immediate environment. The immediate environment that they've looked at as dull, boring, not worthy of being photographed ... and to see the beauty there. It was a very interesting exercise.



I've lived in a lot of places, a few of which might not be considered 'Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty' ... but in every one, I have fond memories of a beautiful place.

Dave Cutter

Eventually**********??? Mankind is nowhere near being able to save ourselves!!!!! And tree huggers are slowing progress and making any chance of long term sustainable survival impossible.

The universe will never become possible for mankind to manage. We can't even come close to managing Earth. We are merely small mammals.

Machka 

WTG with the happy thoughts.

Go sniff a rose.

Dave Cutter

Sorry. I forget that my actual feelings may not come across via an Internet post. I am a very happy guy. The working of nature (and my creator) isn't anything I see as gloomy or sad. I think TODAY.... was the greatest day in all of history to be alive... and I am so happy to have been here to be part of it all. I hope tomorrow goes half as well.

But I make coffee in the mornings, put air in my bikes tires before I ride, and take the trash to the curb... on trash day. I think it would be better to think about preserving our resources.... AFTER we learn how to survive. Everything has it's time.