Wherever You Go

I have a passion for handbags. No matter if I gain or lose weight, handbags ALWAYS fit!  I love browsing through stores checking out how they’re made; and if they’re cute, a good price and happen to have a colorful lining, IT’S OVER! 

Wherever I go I notice them, I even notice them in the movies (I love the ones Sandra Bullock carried in The Proposal!)!  When a woman walks by me, her handbag almost always catches my eye.  I check out the brand, the color, the style, I wonder what it says about her…..on and on…I’m “chronic”!

When you have a passion for something, you see it everywhere.  You’ve probably noticed, but I have a passion to changing perceptions. Despite what I was like in the past, I’ve come to recognize that I like the challenge of trying to see the best in people even if they’re not showing it.  I like the challenge of changing the negative to a positive whether it is words, circumstances or situations. And, similar to my passion for handbags, I notice both negative and positive perceptions everywhere, in the media, books, magazines, ads, in the people or situations I meet or come across….and even in the movies.

A couple of summers ago, my son and I, being Paul Rudd fans, went to see the movie, My Idiot Brother.  Now, I don’t recommend the movie, it wasn’t very entertaining, but there was one nugget of dialog that touched my heart and it was the crux of the movie.  Paul Rudd’s character (the “idiot” brother) was explaining why his truthful, yet naïve actions kept getting him in trouble. He said, “I like to think that if you put your trust out there, I mean if you really give people the benefit of the doubt and see their best intentions, people will rise to the occasion.”  I got misty-eyed over the sheer truth of that statement.

Will that attitude always seem rewarding?  No.  We disappoint each other, break promises, change our minds, say hurtful things, get in bad moods; but when those things happen, we still have the choice to let hurt attach itself to us or not.  We can choose to let it go; it is a choice.

As we move throughout our day, let’s choose to recognize opportunities to think the best of every situation or flip-flop a negative situation to a positive. I look forward to seeing us all “rise to the occasion.”

-Tessa L. Charles