It's a theme...

Rather than a meme. It's an actual post. Inspired by several that are going around at the moment - recent ones from Den of Chaos and Craftastrophies in particular.

2008 was a year of crap for me. In the process of the year, I had a number of crap things happen to me, and when I thought I couldn't get any lower, the world just beat me down a little more. This year I was suspended from my job (not in a Bad Way but in a "we can't keep you on the books so we'll suspend you rather than fire you"), failed a subject for uni because of my shoulder rendering me un'allowed to complete it, thus added an extra year to my course, ran up a large amount of debt, gained weight and losing condition, and got Depressed to boot. Somewhere in there I was also investigated for fraud, had more appointments that I really care to think about, had to replace my manual car and sold my beloved scooter. It was also crap for a number of my friends. One had the rug pulled out from underneath her when her fiance called off their engagement shortly after their engagement party; another had the worst birthday ever when her father committed suicide; and the list goes on.

But all of that fades. Even now, without looking back over diaries and journals, it's hard to remember these things. The stand outs would be surgery, but that was in early December... it shouldn't have coloured the year like it did. But in the end, the year was bid farewell to on NYE rather than the new one being welcomed. I have things to be grateful for - my kitty, my health, my potential, my brain, my sweety, my boss being fabulous about me coming back when I'm cleared to.

We as humans are so quick to remember the negatives; so easily led down the path of listing our flaws and failures rather than our talents and achievements. So for 2009, I will try to focus on the positives. Thanks to Bing Crosby / Perry Como, I will try to do more of this:

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene