Eternal Optimist?

I sometimes struggle with this.  Am I really the eternal optimist or is it a mask for an eternal pessimist?  Three occasions recently convinced me that I am an eternal optimist.  The first was pulling out of our driveway after a record amount of snowfall for the winter, and saying "The winter was not really that bad after all."  I would have been run out of town by half the population if I had said this in their company.  There are no 5 feet snow banks left, and even though there is snow predicted, we are in the home stretch of getting to warmer weather.  The second one was finding this card that my friend Susan gave me in the late 70s.  It has been on my bulletin board since then.  In an effort to clean up my bulletin board, I took a picture of the front and the inside of the card, and put it away in a file.  It pretty much does fit my personality, the card that is.

However, there are times when I get pessimistic, and expect the worst.  I have a vivid imagination and when my family is out on the road, and a bit late, I am convinced they are dead from a car accident.  I am sure that my kids burned down the house while they are using it in Vermont. 

I think having this vivid imagination is not very useful.  "Worry is the misuse of imagination", is how one of our group once said it.  That does not help when I am imagining the worst.  I have to pull myself out of these images and talk with my Rock of Gibraltar who is usually the voice of reason.

OK, so being an eternal optimist is not always great.  I don't see the potholes in life and will too easily jump on the latest idea without considering the downfalls.  That is why I surround myself with Eeyores.

I am what I am, and I love this card as evidenced by it's presence on my bulletin board for over 40 years.