Glad

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've been participating in an e-mail chain with a couple of friends that is a simple, near-daily update of all the things we are grateful for or glad about. I was skeptical at first about how long I/we could keep it up, and frankly, it is still early (we started towards the end of July), but I can see it continuing for a while. It's so nice to get such positive e-mails in my inbox, so nice to read about others' happinesses, so nice to reply with my own.

Replying requires some reflection about the day, and I don't get to do that enough. Of course, reflection doesn't discriminate, and the negatives pop up, too, but I gladly omit those from the e-mail (and so does everyone else; it's pretty strictly happy thoughts). I think that's what I do naturally: I don't share the negatives with many (or with any, sometimes) because I don't want to be that person who brings others down. I'd much rather be the person who listens to others' negatives. If that makes me weird, so be it.

There are some days I feel like nothing super good happened, and then, when I sit down to reply to this e-mail thread, I find that actually, I can think of a lot of good stuff happening. Lately, I feel like my lists are more involved - and longer. Maybe because school stuff has been on the brain - and there's a lot to be happy about there - and maybe also because I'm just getting better at finding the positives.

In any case, I'd recommend a gratefulness journal for anyone (I think that's how this idea first came about, but Chen wanted to make it more of a shared thing). I've been pretty bad about keeping up written journals myself, but I've done all right with electronic journaling for whatever reason. (Maybe because I'm online almost constantly? ... Nah.)

In other news, school has begun! Day 1, year 2 is over without too much drama. Looking forward to a productive and positive year. On my bad days last year, I would tell myself that things would be better this year. I wonder what I should tell myself now... It will all be over soon? That seems wholly negative. Perhaps I should just tell myself that there won't be bad days at all. Self-fulfilling prophecy?