How to be optimistic

People keep asking me about the secret to my being optimistic all the time. I think that I must have received it genetically, from generation to generation. The trick is surely related to that. And then, I grew up amongst people that like to make jokes and believe that a day spent without even a little smile is a lost day. 

Sure, life has taught me that not everybody is of the same opinion when it comes to high-spiritedness. A bitter lesson I had to learn when I was looked at as if I were an alien for making a joke. I was seriously suffering from unreliability, that was the conclusion drawn about me, like a curtain that comes down at the end of a play and no reply can ever be made.
But it's fine... I know that now I must not brim over with optimism, and then - if the situation seems favorable - I can demonstrate that I am serious, hardworking and that I keep my own words while being incredibly fun to be around to.

But let's get back to the issue... Being an optimistic is rather innate, but also depends on the people around you. I am an optimistic also because of the people I interact with. A couple of dear friends keep showing me, in case I forget, who am I and who are they. Golden, spirited, raising. Let's take, for example, the picture below. A musical box. But not an ordinary one.

A musical box that was handmade by one of my collaborators. And the melody that comes from it when you turn the handle is "What a wonderful world" by Louis Armstrong. And like I was writing... the most important thing is to be constantly shown by others of the optimism you carry within you.

And when it comes to talking about methods in order to see the world more optimistically, I think that everyone has something to recommend.

One world: tolerance

When the world was smaller, and I was a little taller than I am right now, I found out about the existence of a house. A simple house, with one door. I knew that. I had heard people talking about it and about how they would listen in front of it. Bizarre and superhuman things were said to have happened there. But there was only one thing that struck me. How that house could heat the conversations between people. And later, I was to find out how it also affected their minds, since they had invented so many weird stories.

During those times, I found that there were people that did not believe the stories going about the town, concerning the house and the people inhabiting it. They used to delicately refuse to talk about such things. I used to think that they were just stronger and could not easily give in to curiosity. From time to time, now, such people come my way and help me understand the meaning of tolerance. I like to sit back and enjoy the spectacle of them being confronted with voices that talk louder and louder in order to put some sense into them. The calm with which they respond to every spiteful remark is a real source of inspiration. And yes, I like being constantly comforted that my faith in humans is not in vain.
Tolerance. A word. An ideal.

It’s too bad that…

“It’s too bad that people cannot exchange their problems amongst them. It seems that everyone knows the solution to other people’s problems.” - Olin Miller

I do not know how it is for you, guys, but I cannot help noticing how many people seem to jump to my rescue. Wherever I go, people greet me with various solutions. I find it most amusing when you don’t say anything, but people ‘read you from afar’ and they know better than you the problems you deal with and how to solve them. 
The best thing is to ignore the situation, but when you can’t there is a little song that might help.

Top 12 Stupid Things

“Even from a young age, we are forced to do so many stupid things, thinking they are essential.”
So let’s, starting from today, not do them anymore.

I read this line in a book and it got my thinking. So much that I started making a list of them:
- Not to stop a discussion even when the tone of the person speaking to you is obviously taunting.
- To believe everything you are told without even trying to see for yourself if the situation/ person presents to you in the same way
- To insist on giving proof of being good/ serious/ organized/ motivated to a person who has already made up their mind about you being a lesser person
- To listen on-and-on to monologues on your mobile, when you are allowed to speak for only 5 minutes
- To answer to calls on your mobile, day and night and night and day, as if it is a chip under your skin and people would see and judge you for not answering them
- To let yourself be blackmailed with others’ expectations on you
- Not to stand your ground when someone is constantly attacking you, for fear of being seen as aggressive
- To do certain things only because everyone around you does it
- Not to take personal time, for fear of being seen as selfish
- To lie to yourself that you will get to love something that is totally indifferent to you
- Not to declaim against abuse, for fear of being seen as pretentious
- To be ashamed of your ambitions

What about you? What is on your list?

My inspirationals

What do you do in order to feel better?
I collect quotes and pictures. I have a Word document in which I keep quotes to read on a good day or on a not so good day.
From all the pictures, I particular like the one below and I think it found me, instead:

(photo source: https://me.me/i/if-you-expect-the-world-to-be-fair-with-you-5722040)

Below there are some of my favourite quotes:

"Je veux tout de la vie, être une femme et aussi un homme, avoir beaucoup d'amis, et aussi la solitude, travailler énormément, écrire de bons livres, et aussi voyager, m'amuser, être égoïste et aussi généreuse… Vous voyez, ce n'est pas facile d'avoir tout ce que je veux. Or quand je n'y parviens pas, ça me rend folle de colère".

---- Simone de Beauvoir à Nelson Algren, 3 juillet 1947

(I demand everything from life, to be a woman and also a man, to have friends and also enjoy solitude, to work hard and to write good books, but also to travel, to feel good, to be selfish, but also generous.. You see, all this that I want is not easy to obtain. And when I don't get it, I tend to get as mad as hell.) 

“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place, and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you get hit; it’s about how hard you get hit, and keep moving forward.”

-- Rocky Balboa in Rocky, 1976

Charles Bukowski: "We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing."

A short story

Sara had never dared to leave the apartment before. And now, here she was barefooted in the street. Strong lights were making her eyes squint with pain. The noise of people and cars around her was making her dizzy.

Was this the freedom she so desperately needed? The fear was growing more and more into her chest, making her choke. She could be brave and ask for help. But from whom? And in what language? 

She reached her arm and smiled at the man approaching. 

Suddenly, her eyes could see only dark sky and stars. He was home now.