Although I get discouraged as much as the next person, at heart I am an incurable optimist. My glass is almost always half-full.
While sitting here at the computer in the office with the electric heater aimed at my feet, I was contemplating the end of another February.
Of course, a prediction of several more inches of snow yet this week and the colder temperatures coming doesn’t make me regret that the end of the month is nearly here, although as Februarys go, it really hasn’t been so bad.
I might be jinxing us, but thousands of blackbirds (all kinds) have arrived in the area, a sign that spring, yes actual spring, might be here soon, Jack tells me.
Or, as my “the glass is half empty” hubby says, maybe they were fooled by our recent week of semi-warm weather and will be sorry they showed up in the north country when the snow flies again.
I knew it.
I wrote this Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday the snow started, and schools closed early. This morning, (Thursday), we woke up to nearly 10 inches of snow and now, as I am working on putting this page together, Jack, who went to check on Terry’s Mom, said we are getting freezing rain and windy conditions are predicted next!!
But, before this hit us, you have to admit we have had quite a few days of sunshine, and even the brief flirt with 40-degree (and one day almost 50 degree) temperatures last week. That really helps to brighten the midwinter blues quite a bit. Mix in quite a few incredibly beautiful sunsets lately when the sky seems on fire with reds, yellow and purple colors, and the days are almost bearable even if it is still February.
Now if our economy could only be a bit sunny, or improve gradually like the weather seems to be doing, things would be really great. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be happening, at least not yet, although as an admittedly incurable optimist, I keep right on hoping.
Hard times and runaway inflation seem to be the main topic of conversation these days no matter where you are, with story after story of the massive struggles some have just to keep their heads above the waves.
For those of us on a (mostly) fixed income, it has been a bit tough, especially when a dozen eggs now costs more than a pound of hamburger…
One thing about most Americans, you can’t keep us down forever. You can find something good about almost anything. The other side of hard times is that they seem to bring out the good neighbor in all of us and make us even more determined to “make it” or help someone else make it through a difficult time.
When I pray, and I actually do quite a lot of that, I usually ask for courage, or the strength to handle something bad that has happened or whatever is coming next. That little prayer has, time after time, kept me from despair and often has been answered in a positive way.
I remember once when we were a very young married couple with a baby, really struggling to keep things together and make ends meet. At a particularly difficult time, my Mom, who was depressed and having a pretty rough winter herself, called to ask if we could make the two-and-a-half-hour trip up to Roscommon for the weekend. At the time we lived southwest of Jackson in a $50 a month converted garage.
Knowing our finances, she even somehow found an extra $20 to send us for gas. Believe it or not, that was enough back then to fill the tank with enough left over for the return trip. We went and visited, not mentioning how broke we actually were that week. On the way home we worried about how our remaining 50 cents (true story) would get us through the five days left until payday. I made that little prayer to myself. “Lord, please help us handle what ever comes next.” When we arrived home, we picked up the weekend mail and mixed in with the usual batch of bills was our income tax refund check…
Although we have never been quite that financially desperate in the 55 years since, we have had our share of heartaches and problems to deal with over the years. I have made that same little prayer many times. It has been answered time and time again, not necessarily with money, things, or even a solution, but always with the strength that I needed to make it through.
So, you see, I have to be an optimist.