All About Attitude

A traveller found a wise man at a crossroads. "Tell me, if you will, Wise Man, what are the people like in the town over the hill?"
"What were the people like in the last town you lived in?" asked the old man.
"They were the best people I ever knew," came the reply, "good and honest hardworking people."
"The people in the town over the hill are good and honest hardworking people too," answered the wise man.
"Thank you," said the traveller, and he went on his way toward the town.
Some time later another traveller was passing by and, wanting to know about the very same place, he too spoke to the wise old man.
"What are the people like in the very next town?"
"What were they like in the last town you lived in?" asked the old man.
"They were rude and arrogant. The worst people I ever knew. I cannot walk fast enough to get away from them!" cried the traveller.
The wise old man nodded slowly.
"The people in the next town are rude and arrogant also," he said softly.

A new year always grants an opportunity for starting over. Obvious as that sounds it invites the possibility of change of heart and potential for increased happiness. Most of our happiness comes from inside us and depends largely on how happy we choose to be.
In speaking to some new friends recently we discovered that we are, at this point in our lives, rating particularly high on the complaint meter. We are in the midst of understanding what makes us happy and as a result that tends to unravel a good deal of what we thought we could expect from our lives. In other words, to find out what suits us best we must first come to realise that we do not like everything about our lives. My mother might use the old adage about not being able to make an omelette without cracking some eggs.

Those same friends attended a birthday party with us a number of weeks ago, where parking space was extremely limited at the host's house.
We had to listen very closely to, and we quite nearly missed, the following quietly stated humble comment: it seems that they brought their smaller car in order to take up less room in the driveway.
I cannot recall the last time I heard something so very modest and unselfish. It serves to prove that we only need to be more observant- there are kind people and decent things, and the world might not be such a grumble-worthy place after all. With an ear to the ground and an eye to the clouds we can never go wrong.