"If one has to choose, far better elect to be optimistic in your outlook as opposed to pessimistic. In optimism, there is a constant magic and solution to be found; in pessimism, nothing! I often hear folk say, 'It is easy to be optimistic when...........', as though the matter has been taken out of their hands and determined solely through circumstances they've experienced. Never forget, that we all lose power to influence for the better, by simply thinking that we have none!
During my life, I have been fortunate to meet many a person who has influenced my life for the better. There are some people who I may forget what they said, even forget what they did, but there are others whom I will never forget how they made me feel; whether good or bad.
I once knew a lady from my time in the old Batley Hospital when I was a patient there for nine months as a young boy. Her name was Gwen and she was a big, jolly woman who was always smiling and had something positive to say. Gwen was a Hospital Orderly (or a cleaner as they are now called), and every morning after breakfast, she would appear to clean up the ward before the Matron made her rounds. As Gwen did her work, she would always be humming a tune and wearing a smile. She never tidied up around my bed and locker without talking to me and asking how I was today. I can honestly say that I never once saw her without having felt better for doing so! Feeling pretty painful at the time, with numerous broken bones on the mend, Gwen always represented the rainbow that followed the rain. She was the most colourful person in my day.
I once asked her what her secret was and why she was always so jolly, especially as she worked in a place where sickness and death was a constant feature. She replied, 'Billy, believe me, I wasn't always like I am today.' She then told me a bit of her life experience to illustrate that things can change for the better once we allow them to. Having worked in the hospital for over fourteen years, she had seen so many people here one day and gone the next; so many in fact, that it brought home to her we should never miss one moment of happiness when it comes around. She indicated that knowing that things sometimes won't come twice should make any experience all the sweeter. Then she said, 'Billy, there'll come a time when I come onto the ward to do my cleaning round one morning and someone else will be in this bed and you'll have gone home. And that, my boy, is why I've got to make the most of my time with you now. So stop asking me questions and let me get on with my work!'
Gwen was one of life's optimists, and everyone she touched, she left feeling better. She didn't go on about her past when we talked. but was more concerned with my future and what I intended to do. True communication with another enables one to be nostalgic about their future. She was able to see some of the good things that would happen to me and rejoice in their anticipation, despite the seriousness of my injuries.
Whenever I forget what goodness looks like in the raw, I remember Gwen, because she was the perfect personification of it. To other patients on the ward who tended to be more pessimistic about their future, Gwen represented no more than the jolly woman who washed the ward floors every morning with her mop and bucket, but not I. Whenever she passed by my bed, I could feel that she carried hope in her bucket, not dirty water! I will never forget the morning she arrived on the ward for her daily duties and she saw me with tears in my eyes. I had just been told by the hospital consultant that I'd never walk again and was feeling pretty low. She forced me to tell her what was making me sad and when I did, in a matter-of-fact voice, she gave a dismissive huff and said, 'What do they know of God's plans?' I don't know why, but at that precise moment, I chose to believe the words of the hospital orderly, Gwen, over the less positive medical pronouncement of the consultant.
If I do feel saddened occasionally, it is when I see despair and the absence of hope in the face of another, particularly the young, who may fear for their future. I compare such feelings to the ones I had growing up in the 50's, when the future was something all boys and girls looked forward to, not feared! Children should have more going for them today than ever we had, not less! It may be, that like me, they require a blood transfusion regularly to remind them we can still get by in life, providing we don't stop breathing in and out, in and out! Better still, I would attach every young person in the world to a Gwen of their own; that might do the trick!
The blood of an optimist (like mine, I'm pleased to say), is A-Positive, and I strongly suspect that the blood of a pessimist is B-Negative. Put another way, as my Sheila would say, 'All things are good, if they come in the shape of a chocolate brownie!' Never forget that the choice is yours; optimist or pessimist, hope or despair, happiness or sadness; you hold the key to the mood you adopt and the belief you place your energy in.
I have always viewed an optimist to be the human personification of a hopeful spring still to come and the pessimist as the 'What's wrong?' questioner awaiting a bitter storm. Winter will unfortunately always prove too cold for those with no warm memories of summers past.
The optimist learns very early on in life, that seasons come and go; that no winter lasts forever and no spring ever skips its turn. Better days will always be found around the corner for the hopeful traveller. So in the meantime, enjoy the season you are in and find your magic in the moment." William Forde : September 21st, 2016.
https://youtu.be/7TsrfAfSUAs