I tell you: Positive Thinking is a Survival Skill!

Can't believe yesterday I forgot to put in this half-empty cartoon that my brother sent me once when I was feeling discouraged about something BIG. It was exactly what I needed.

"It doesn't matter if the glass is half full or half empty, 

I am gonna drink it through this crazy straw!"

(Especially on point because my mother was the type of mother who always found things like crazy straws and spider rings before any other parent on the block. Never one to pass up a novelty thrill, that's my mother. She had pink flamingos loooong before they were trendy.)

Also my brother was the one who first told me about this book years ago. But I'm sleepy so I won't be quoting, just retelling from memory...

The story of the scientist who lost half her brain exemplifies both of the Optimism Arguments I made Monday and Tuesday. For those who've never heard of her, Jill Bolte-Taylor had a stroke on the left side of her brain, which allowed her to really understand just what the right brain does in terms of being creative and uninhibited, and experiencing her Self as being at one with the matter around her. Not in a woo-ee way, but seriously, concretely. She had trouble distinguishing her hand from the desk, and it was really Nice. And when people came to visit her, though she couldn't understand their words at first, she sensed energy from them, and if they were draining her energy (if they were rude, impatient) she'd shut them out.

1st: The Hopeful Unrealistic Goal

Jill was told all sorts of dire things by the doctors about not recovering full use of her left brain functions (speech, memory, logical thinking etc). She says she needed people who believed she would completely recover from her stroke, in order to recover. She needed people to believe that she would recover full use of her left brain, even if it wasn't "realistic" to believe this. Believing in an island under the milk was key to her recovery, and having those around her believe too.

2nd: Positive Thoughts About Her Successes

She and her mother (her caregiver) both believed that it was absolutely crucial to celebrate every success she had, even though they pretty much consisted of reading one word and then sleeping the rest of the day. No negative thoughts or ideas were allowed. She took the well wishing cards people sent and hung them all over her house, even though she couldn't read them.

And she did recover use of the left side of her brain. Against the early predictions of her doctors. And she also got the insight of her right brain out of it--a more balanced and peaceful life. And the ability to help other stroke sufferers.

So put that in your Pollyanna pipe and smoke it. ;-)

           

On today's menu: Serving up a little love

On April 1st my dad posted on his blog about the apostle Paul's famous writings on lurv. I wanted to re-read the passage, and decided to share.

But if you're feeling too worn out by life to get through the long-winded writing of Paul, then sit back and let Alicia Keys sing to you instead. Cause she knows what you're going through.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became an adult, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

If you made a Best Parts version of the Bible (à la Princess Bride) this would definitely make the cut.

I hope your spring-a-tude weekend contains...

A little faith: in yourself, in your fave show to cheer you up, in anything!

A little hope: Emily Dickinson says it never dies.

And a little love: if not, I sends you some in the form of my step-mother with her dear departed lovebird, Agape.

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That was 1 Corinthians 13. I chose the New King James, for the sheer poetry of it, though I changed "man" to "adult." To see other versions, or the context, check out this handy site.

But don't get a parrot! As my parents learned after getting parrots, selling them should be absolutely banned. It's a horrid industry and birds need to live in flocks. My parents put hours of work into caring for their two remaining birds, and they support this rescue which has to care for all the beautiful sick creatures that people discovered were too hard to care for after they bought them.  >:-(