Optimism 2

My mental meanderings bring me neatly back round - ho, hum! - to optimism again. Despite the strange vicissitudes of the last few days, having arrived here again, I do believe I would like to stay in this particular cool pond for a long time. It feels calming and peaceful, a good place to be. Optimism makes difficulty a far easier meal to swallow than dogged realism.

Last Saturday, in the grip of my new decision to be upbeat about everything - before I fell and hit the skids on Monday - my husband and I had arranged to meet up for a meal, after the rugby. He went to the ‘six nations’ match (Scotland lost in the last minute) against France, but it was a good game. Driving down to meet him, and looking for a parking space in a very congested part of town, I headed up a narrow cul-de-sac which came to an abrupt end. It was stacked with builders’ rubble along half of its length. I was forced to reverse very slowly along the dark, narrow side street, back to the main road. Other vehicles seemed intent on following my car down this dead end, and I could have been very stressed about the whole thing. Instead, I very clearly and calmly reminded myself I was an optimist now, and asked my angels for help.

As I was nearing the road exit, a lovely woman got into her car, which was parked near me, and signalled that she wanted to leave her space. She waited in the road to move past, as I moved in to give her room, before turning the car around and parking properly. That, in the context of the surrounding traffic chaos was nothing short of a lovely miracle, confirming that my intention to Be An Optimist is a good one, heartily approved of by anyone watching from the spiritual balconies.

Perhaps I should discount this outcome as merely ‘beginners luck’. Even so, it makes me smile, which has to be a good thing, when training to be a full-time optimist.