SOLON & BEYOND: Always keep a positive spin on life

by Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percy
grams29@tds.net
Solon, Maine 04979

This week’s column is being taken from the August 4, 2005, issue of The Town Line paper. It starts out, Good morning my friends, Don’t worry, be happy! My many thanks to all of you who have told me you liked the Flagstaff article, my thanks also to Roland for doing this series, it means so much.

This week I’m going to let Percy have more space, he would like to share these words with you; “Realize that you are capable of working miracles of your own making. Remember that it is up to you to find the key that unlocks the door to your happiness. Understand that increased difficulty brings you nearer to the truth of how to get beyond it. Cross your bridges. Meet your challenges. Reach out for your dreams, and discover how to get closer and closer to a more fulfilling life. Get rid of the ‘if only’s, and get on with whatever you need to do to get things right.” (words by Douglas Pagely).

I needed those words last night. I had this column almost written and I lost it all! Bet if you had looked down on Ferry Street the air would have been blue. Peter has told me over and over to save it when I first start writing, and do I do it ? NO, well this time I have.

That is what I did yesterday when I was writing this week’s column and lost every bit of it! And usually when I do something like that Peter can find it and get me out of trouble, BUT, guess I really did it up, if he couldn’t find it.

And so this will be a rather short column, but I’m going to put in a few “Rainy-Day” Remedies, if you are down. I hope they will cheer you up!

If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, “I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.” Then repeat to yourself the most comforting of all words, “This, too, shall pass.”

“Resolve to see the world on the sunny side, and you have almost won the battle of life at the outset,” by Sir Roger L’Estrange. Ten Simple ways to Brighten Someone’s Day: Buy some chocolates and leave one on everyone’s desk at work. Smile at a stranger on the street. Give someone a compliment. Add happy faces to all the e-mails you send out. Lend a friend one of your favorite books or videos. Let somebody with fewer items go ahead of you in line at the store. Clean the house, even if it’s not your turn. Send a greeting card for no reason. Pay the toll for the car behind you. Tell someone how much you love them.

And now for Percy’s memoir, I’ve heard that people enjoy it: “The next time life gets you down, remember, you have a choice. You can either stay down in the doldrums where there is nothing but more negative feelings or you can make up your mind to laugh until the doldrums disappear. The choice is up to you. Find a reason to laugh!” – by Less Brown.