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Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Doom and Gloom

 
It still amazes me that, for the most part, the only thing the news reports is what is wrong in the world. They love to focus on the shortcomings of our society such as economic downturns, violence, political corruption and more.  If you get a chance to ask someone behind the scenes, they will tell you that negativity is what sells, that these are the stories the public wants to hear.

Wow, I am certainly glad I don’t hang around those people all day! Years ago I made a conscious decision to stop watching the news, reading the paper, or paying attention to anyone whose job it is to tell us how bad things are. Occasionally, for fun, I'll tune in to see what is new. Absolutely nothing.

In my opinion, the saddest part is that so many people buy into the constant negativity. As we know from the store, people spend so much of their time nowadays with the 24 hour news channels on in the background, with its negativity constantly invading their subconscious. Sure, in my 47 years on this Earth, times have  been shown to go up and down. But last time I checked, people are blessed with the freewill to choose their attitude an
d happiness, and if they are not happy with something in their lives, they can choose to do something about it.

Over the past four months I have been traveling quite a bit. I have been to California, Ohio, Atlanta, Baltimore and Florida just to name a few. I do not get the sense of "Doom and Gloom" from the visually impaired community that I am meeting. In fact, it is quite the opposite. I am finding a great diversity of people from different backgrounds, connecting with other people suffering from vision impairment. Despite differences in geography or economic status, they are all looking for solution to better serve themselves, their patients, their clients, their students etc.

As the season changes and more pleasant days are upon us, be inspired to take charge and get back into the driver seat of life. "They" -  whoever "they" are - can't do it for you. "It" - whatever "it" is - will not fix itself. Take a look outside now that spring is here and observe how nature all around us takes charge and does what is does best, no matter what the news has to say…