Smitty's ESH: The Power of Attitude

I saw this today on a blog from dAAve.....

"A positive attitude may not solve all of my problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."

This spoke to me because by gumbo, that is what my brother did the other day. This past weekend, we both discovered that the tickets I had purchased back in December would not give us time to visit this summer, unless we made a major change in our itinerary! Complete with penalty fees for an error that could have been prevented had he made it perfectly clear to me that June was NOT the time to visit him.

He kept having a great attitude... while I remained decidedly ticked. Righteous. It annoyed me that in the face of what I saw as a tragedy, he insisted on his own optimism.

I had given him choices at the very beginning...of which weekends would work best for us to visit him. We talked through the options and he DECIDED with me, that being together on my birthday would work nicely. I made the flight plans and emailed him a copy of our itinerary. I sent follow up emails, and did not worry about a lack of replies, because my brother is hard for me to get ahold of. I could see my part in the problem at hand. In my mind, he also had a part in the "blame" and I wanted him to apologize profusely. But he wants to be cheerful, telling ME it will all work out for the best and to let go of the original plans.... asking me provocative questions about myself that I did not want to answer!

In the end, flight plans needed to be changed. Yesterday I was ready to pay the price. Making that choice did not require me to feel perfectly rested or with my house clean and orderly. Nor did it require me to be pain free. (Something is still wrong with my foot, but I did not let that get in my way of using myself gently as I called Travelocity knowing my dates and speaking without regret, paying for my mistake with a credit card.)

I am happy because I ALLOWED my own attitude to shift. My brother was annoying me too much with his positive attitude! Guess I found out I would rather switch than fight!

It took me twenty four hours of doing other things... before I was fully willing to wipe my plan off the slate, and let God's plan take its place. We just pushed our travel plans ahead a week, so as to enjoy the Pacific Northwest in July, instead.