I am so tired of the negativity that seems to be crippling my friends and family lately. I know they say misery loves company, but my GOD, what does it get you? We expect to feed one another to a point.

"I hate my thighs."... You have great thighs. (begging for compliments)
"I have a hangnail." ... It's red and infected. It's probably MRSA. (i'm dying)

Seriously folks.. What gives? I refuse to wallow in everyones snark for a while. I know I am a pretty positive person and my mind is easily swayed by a tornado of negative emotion. Sometimes I feel like I am standing in the eye of a hurricane. The negative people around me sobbing, crying, yelling about their lives and their "oh my god the world is falling" around them and I am standing in the calm center saying, "YEAH. . . but look where we are going! This could be great!!!"

I don't know if its the fact that I've gone through some pretty heavy situations over the last couple of years (really my entire life but who's keeping tabs), but I am living a life of gratitude right now. Grateful for EVERYTHING good and "bad."  Sometimes the bad isn't bad at all.

My kids give me a lot of hope and outlook.  They don't see all of the problems. They are just living the dream.  I am now living the life I imagined. Free from judgement of others from the amount of money I make, the kind of car I drive, what I do for a living, who my family is, how much I weigh, if I have a damn pimple and I'm not wearing makeup in public. My happiness is deep. My positive outlook doesn't just sit on my skin, but radiates in and out of my body and hopefully touching others (in my mind). Once I learned to love myself and be free from worry,  I began truly living.