Default Optimism

I am an optimist, by default. I used to be a cynic, a pessimist, a realist, a fatalist, and for five minutes every so often, I dabble with a bit of anarchy.�� It feels like such a relief, to have worked my way through various stages of despair and disillusionment and arrived, a bit dishevelled and worn round the edges, at a lighter place, which I might call default optimism.�� That upward trajectory feels promising.�� As I get older, I seem to be moving in the right direction.�� As a young woman, I assumed that age brought increasing worry and cynicism, and I am immensely relieved to notice that the opposite is true.

For me, the upward trend of my thinking has a much to do with increasingly believing in Divine Organisation.�� If, having invested as much commitment and effort as we can in an outcome, we trust that everything works out with Perfect Timing �� a thing I suspect we know and which we find encapsulated in such folk wisdom as ��What��s for you will not go by you�� and ��If it��s meant to happen, it will�� then how does it help anything to insist on worrisome scrutiny?�� I notice that often we insist on recalling injustice and unhappiness in excruciating detail, because if we allowed nature to take its course, they would evaporate naturally with the passage of time.

Asking for clarity, help or solutions of any sort, and then letting go, allows natural optimism to reassert itself.�� Then,��I can go quietly and peacefully about��my business,��hopeful that at the best time and in the very best way,��my clear prayers will be answered.�� I just have to remember not to be too surprised when the outcome arrives, uttering a heartfelt ‘Thank You’, instead of pushing it away like Victor Meldrew might, by remonstrating, ��I don��t believe it!��