The Secret

I think I mentioned my friend Robert in my first post. He's the one with the incredibly positive attitude who's such a great guy. Well, he recommended a book to me called "The Secret". It's basically about the power of positive attraction; if you have negative thoughts, you attract more negative things into your life, and vice versa - if you have positive thoughts, you attract the positive.

I've never been one for self-help books. My attitude has always pretty much been "The gods help those who help themselves", and "Get up off your butt & do something... nobody's going to save your ass but you". So to believe that simply having the positive thoughts going will make your life better seems pretty simplistic & naive on the surface. I'm only about a third of the way into the book, but what I've been seeing reflected in real life is pretty darned amazing.

First, I really noticed this 'secret' in action in other people. Those people who I admire and respect; who seem to have it all together and seem genuinely happy most of the time really do have a positive attitude about things; even when things don't go their way. Those people who seem to have the world collapse in on them constantly are also the ones who are constantly bitching about how much life sucks & how unfair everything is to them. Coincidence?

Now, as to myself, I recently posted the bitch blog about dealing with the people from SSI. Shortly after this, I got a hold of the book, & decided to put this positive thinking more into practice - to really try to keep my thoughts positive & be the master of my own thoughts. Amazingly enough, my fears did not come into play, I did not have to hire an attorney, I still owe some back money, but not nearly the massive amount I originally thought, and the issue will be resolved once & for all & I don't have to deal with that agency & their incompetence & negativity again. I've put it behind me and moved on to the positive. I'm resolving the MediCal issue, the transition is going smoothly, and I'm sure it will all work out, too. So.... wow! Again, coincidence?

Sometimes it's not so easy to let go of the negative, though - especially when it comes in the shape of friends you've been friends with for years. I'd been friends with a person for over 20 years, or so I thought. This person was one of the negative ones - rarely did she ever call with anything positive, but if something horrid happened, she'd be looking me up. She did have an amazing amount of crappy things happen to her, and things just kept getting worse. I tried to be there for her through troubled times, but I don't think she really wanted my help or friendship - I think she was happy being unhappy. When she started drinking extremely heavily, I tried talking to her about it, and it almost killed the friendship right there. We remained peripheral friends after, until recently. She took offense to a Facebook topic and although I apologized if I offended her, tried to explain that what she read into it was not what I meant, it didn't matter - a few days later, she "unfriended" me on Facebook. Talk about shock & awe - what brought this on? How could she? My gods, over 20 years, did she not see how I'd been there for her through all the crap again & again, & now she drops me because of a post? I really worried about this for a while, till I put some serious thought into it. Maybe it was the law of attraction at work, helping me get rid of the negative in my life. What I thought of as a friendship was actually pretty one sided for a lot of those years - not all, but a lot. It made me question my judgment - how could I have been so blind and wasted all that time, etc - but it wasn't wasted time - it was, like most things in life, an opportunity for growth and learning, and I needed to learn, grow, and move on. Just because something is positive doesn't make it easy.

I then started thinking of all the truly wonderful people I have in my life, and realized these are the people who have been there for me, as I have for them. We rejoice in each others happiness & lend a hand when help is needed. We laugh and cry with each other; support and encourage each other. Positive really does attract positive. I'm so thankful for all the wonderful friends I have in my life, and I look forward to finishing the book & seeing what wonderfully positive things continue to manifest.


later the same evening

Just got a call confirming the boys MediCal will be continued with no interruption, and that if they have any questions when they re-authorize in January, they'll call us then. Good things all around!!!