Pollyannas make me furious. But a positive outlook on life certainly does help. The healthy 94 year old I met yesterday at the Chris Crilly concert being one of those good examples.

Hans Selye, author of Stress Without Distress, was diagnosed with an incurable cancer. He decided he better hurry up and get his work done. The cancer apparently went away, he lived to a good age and I heard him lecture at Loyola U/Montreal in his 70s - for 3 hours with two artificial hips.

On the other hand, a friend just informed me that her 13 year old daughter went through two months of such high anxiety that she could not attend school. The cause was a digestive problem which affected brain function/mood/serotonin level. She is doing fine now, able to return to school. I was surprised to find the gut affecting the brain rather than the other way around.

Where do our moods originate?? As someone who is environmentally sensitive, I have learned that fragrances containing neurotoxins (most of them) can cause me to feel very angry within seconds. I have to remove myself from the area being poisoned.

Before I was aware of the cause, I could be very grumpy and wonder why. We need to consider that the grumpy person may be that way for a very basic reason which has nothing to do with their true personality or who they think they are or want to be. And may have nothing to do with the apparent circumstances - what we said to them or...