Seeing the Good

Last week was extra hectic at our house. Part of the "extra" came from having to drive children to school when they usually take the bus. Three trips per day meant I was feeling rushed; yes, it was only temporary and it was a small change. I was having a hard time staying positive and one morning in particular I looked at the sky and thought:

It's been a few weeks since I took a picture of the sunrise;

 I need to start seeing the beauty again.

then the negative voice popped in:

Well, if it wasn't so gloomy all the time there might be something worth taking a picture of.

I stayed grumpy for a mile or two thinking about the extra gas, time lost, how I like sipping my coffee from my ceramic mug in the comfort of the horse barn instead of from my travel mug behind the wheel of my mini van. Then, as I rounded the corner I caught a glimpse of the sun. She was trying her hardest to push through the clouds and it was just the small whisper I needed. None of us are positive all the time, no matter how hard we try.

I pulled over and took a picture of the sun as a reminder for myself - a reminder to see the good in troubling times. Back when I had a corporate job and helped with large meetings and training sessions, we showed this awareness video:



This video was used in a particular training where we were talking about how we all make mistakes and if you are waiting for someone to make a mistake, they'll make it ... but if you're waiting for them to do something extraordinary, they'll do that too and we should all try to see the best in our co-workers, teammates, friends, family, etc... and by seeing the good in people helps make them better because they'll want to do more good. This entire mindset also helps improve our lives because we start living a life filled with gratitude.

Any of us can apply this "See the Good" mentality to our daily lives. With our children and spouses, with the people at work, with the weather, and even with the extra opportunity to bond with our children while we drive them to school because they had some troubles on the bus. Now - how does this apply to my writing/reading life?

There are some books that for whatever reason just don't get me as excited as others. How do you review a book that you had a hard time with? You guessed it - see the good! There's always some good stuff in there - we just need to look for it.

What advice do you have about seeing the good? What advice do you have about difficult book reviews? Share your thoughts and ideas - we'd love to hear from you!

You're the best!

Hugs,
~Crystal

Crystal is the office manager, council secretary, financial secretary, and musician at her church, birth mother, Auntie, babywearing mama, business owner, active journaler, writer and blogger, Blog Tour Manager with WOW! Women on Writing, Press Corp teammate for the DairyGirl Network, Unicorn Mom Ambassador, as well as a dairy farmer. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their five youngest children, two dogs, four little piggies, a handful of cats and kittens, horses Darlin' and Joker, and over 250 Holsteins.

You can find Crystal milking cows, riding horses, and riding unicorns (not at the same time), taking the ordinary and giving it a little extra (making it extraordinary), blogging and reviewing books here, and at her personal blog - Crystal is dedicated to turning life's lemons into lemonade and she has never (not once) been accused of being normal!