Getting Through to Tomorrow.

A little while ago I published a post on the Pictage forums about trying to look up. I wasn’t really shaking my finger or anything like that, but I wanted to point out that the flow of conversation had really begun to focus on the negative. I’m not a hugely positive person. I’m not prone to seeing the glass as half full. Most of the time for me the glass can be overflowing and I’ll be griping about the waste or predicting where the glass is going to fail, when, and why. It’s in my wiring. When I let that side of me get a grip it slows me down.

I use words like ‘onward,’ and phrases like “what’s next is what’s important” as reminders, as much to myself as to my readers that I need to keep my head up. Forget about criticizing what is so much and focus on the things I need to do to be successful. I have a whole group of people who I’ve surrounded myself with who are extremely good at telling me all of the different ways I suck. An even larger group of folks is really good at telling me how my company sucks. (this group is startlingly large! I’m lucky I’m ambitious and probably a little overconfident!) Fixing these things is my priority. The time I spend griping about these things is wasted.

In response to my thread, Elizabeth Myer, a Raleigh, North Carolina photographer and frequent forum contributer posted this beautiful story...

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride and ego.

One is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, generosity, truth, compassion, benevolence and faith.

The boy thought about it for a moment and asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins the battle?"

The wise old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

I’ve since heard this story in a couple of different settings, but the moral is always the same. Which side of the battle are you feeding?

A pretty interesting thought for a Wednesday.

JC