Guest:

Nobody would be foolish or insensitive enough to tell someone else to always look on the sunny side. (Although the Carter Family did.) I've had times in my life where I couldn't see anything positive... went into a depression. Sometimes, the suffering just overwhelms whatever good you might otherwise be able to see in your life.

To the other extreme though, there are people whose whole day can be ruined because someone beat them to a parking place. A while back, I was waiting in a check out line at a supermarket and a new girl was behind the counter. She messed up something and got all confused and had to call her supervisor to straighten it out. In the meantime the guy in front of me was having a fit, bitching loudly so that everyone could hear him. That just made the girl more upset. Finally, I said to him, "I just got back from visiting someone in the hospital who would give every cent they have if they could just take your place and stand here in line. They'll never walk again." The man shut up, but when the girl finished checking him out, he turned to her and me as he left and said, with a big smile, "Have a nice day!"

I don't know what you've gone through in the last year, and I am not telling you to brush it off as nothing. I do hope that in time you will be able to begin appreciating some of the good things in your life. Someone must care about you, and there must be something that gives you pleasure. If not, I hope it's on it's way.

Jerry