14 Dec The Happy Pessimist
I’m a spiritualist, a teacher, a learner and lover of life. I am also a pessimist. I see the glass half empty; it has a crack and it’s leaking on my paperwork, of which I have no copy. Yep, that’s how I see it.
For years I thought I had to reframe, turn it around, flip my perspective to become the optimist I was sure I was. I was also pretty sure I would fail at this. I did. I wanted to be positive. I wanted to see the glass full. I wanted to put a positive spin on what I saw–but I could report only what I saw. All of the courses and books on positive psychology mess with my mind and my sense of being.
I am a seer by nature. I see what’s missing. It is a skill; people hire me for my “seeing” ability. It’s a good thing–when it’s not a problem. I can say I happily see what is. I embrace the truth because I can see the potential for deeper, broader, kinder, wiser everything.
All this seeing of what’s missing, pointing it out and losing people in the conversation was becoming a problem for others, and thus for myself. I could hear the complaining and blaming that occupied the cracked-glass perspective. What’s a girl to do? How does one reconcile being in the business of positivity while seeing what’s wrong all the time?
The truth is that I, like many of you, am in the business of wisdom. The other truth is that I’m also in the business of troublemaking, and that takes seeing what isn’t, but should be.
The wisdom that cups my ear tells me to be true to myself, that nonconformity is resisting the temptation to give in to the ideas of the many, and that happiness takes the shape of its container. Happiness isn’t about the quantity in the glass, but what it’s doing in the glass. My glass is busy leaking out unto the world. Yay, water of life–aka happiness.
Today, while I see what isn’t working, I also consider what love would do with it. I love the half-empty, cracked, leaking glass. I cradle the glass, speak love into it. And because I’m a coach, you know I have to ask it thought-provoking, self-reflecting questions. I acknowledge the leak as a powerful choice and then I snort out loud. See, I’m a happy pessimist.
This coming year, hour, or day,
Just do you.
Your way is just fine.
Love, love, love, you!
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