Let’s just face it, I am a happy person.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, being happy is a choice. You can go through life looking at everything with a negative attitude or you can be positive about things. It is sort of like the glass is half empty or half full. It is the same glass with the same amount of liquid in it, but different people look at it from different angles. And what about a glass that is one quarter full? You can say you only have a quarter cup of water or you can be happy that you have something. It’s not always easy in every situation but I do try to see the bright side.

But here are a few things about people that tend to get me down.

First off I don’t like liars. When someone can look you in the eyes and tell you a lie that says something about their total character. I recently caught someone telling me a lie. What really hurts is that I liked this person and trusted them. I thought they were straight with me and that they respected me. Obviously I was wrong about them. I found out about the lie quite by accident and I would never challenge this person about the lie but I will remember not to take what this person says in the future as “Gospel”. Doesn’t it say somewhere that if you put your faith in man you will be let down sooner or later?

I also don’t care for mean people. When someone goes out of their way to harm or embarrass another person that just grates on my nerves. I used to be like that but I changed my ways. When someone did me wrong, I would hold a grudge and keep that hatred locked inside so that one day I would get my chance and get even. I can honestly say that I never took the first step to harm someone else but in my younger days I would get even. But even then I never did anything that caused anyone serious pain, just a bit of inconvenience.

There was this one time when someone owed me a lot of money. I took them to small claims court but the judge turned out to be a friend of theirs. So he ordered them to pay me back 5 dollars a month until the debt was paid. The guy laughed at me on my way out of court. He ended uppaying me one time and then told me I would have to take him back to court if I wanted more. I would have to split court costs though and he knew it. So I decided to get even. Late one night I went to his house and loosened the valve stems on all his tires. His car was parallel parked on the street in front of his house. All his tires were slowly deflating. It was snowing when I did the dirty deed and it was supposed to snow all night.

Early the next morning I drove to where he lived and parked about a half block away where I could see his car. Since the snow was several feet deep around his car, he had no idea that the tires were flat. He came out and began shoveling the snow. He shoveled enough so that he could get the door open and enough so he could drive over the snow that was left and he started his car and went inside to let the heater start working. I just sat there down the street smiling. All of a sudden the snow plow showed up and went down the street throwing snow all over his car again. I sat there and watched as he came out cursing and he again started to shovel. Finally he got enough snow removed to get back in the car and he attempted to drive away. That is when he noticed that the tires were flat. I He got out, began cursing and then pulled the car back into his spot. Just then the snow plow showed up again and threw more snow on his car which made him curse even more. I laughed and laughed till I had tears coming from my eyes and I didn’t care about the money he owed me anymore.

But those days are behind me now but I can’t help smiling when I think about that story. I keep telling myself a lesser man would have cut the valve stems or punctured the tires. These days I would most likely leave him an anonymous note saying; God is watching you, do what is right. And I am thankful for my new attitude.

And here is the picture I promised you. I painted this last night at “For the Love of Art”. I am very proud of my work even though it isn’t all that great. I really do enjoy painting.

Have a great day,

Greg