Friday, October 14, 2005

A Different Point of View

I’m smiling. Every now and then I take out my smile to try it on. I make sure that it still fits. I just smile without reason.

Without reason as if I’ve lost my reasoning, not for lack of reasons—I’ve got a world of reasons and most of them are you. (Is it okay to say that? I don’t know, but I just did. )

There’s big full moon that’s shining, and my friends are showing up. They always do. They’re looking in, now and then, with a thought, a hug, a question. They make a place for me. They tell me that I’m needed. Someone said that I was like a special kind of psychic glue. I think that is a good thing. I think that psychics shouldn’t come unglued.

I feel remarkable. I think that fireworks are in order. I want a celebration to mark this feeling that life is for the living and that living is a good thing. I wish my mom could see me. She’d be proud of how I’m smiling. I know my dad would love this. He lived to se me happy. My brothers would think I’m crazy, but even that thought doesn’t phase me. Crazy’s just a different point of view.

I know the world gets so out of kilter, and life twists into a knot. Some days it seems that kindness is in awfully short supply People sometimes seem to talk with tongues that have no sense of decency. I’ve seen my sandbox filled with rain and had days stripped of room for playing. It can get hard to remember that the bad times ever end.

But there are days, and this is one, when friendship sees to shine, when reason sets itself aside to make room for feeling good. Suddenly I understand that I have things that others see only in their dreams. I have friends who are the best of those around. It’s hard not to enjoy a world that gives and gives and gives so much. It’s even harder not to love the friends who make it turn. Every one of you.

I love the joy of gratitude.

The world can be a scary place I know it. It can also be a garden filled with wonder growing under an astounding harvest moon.

I’m smiling. I’m grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Call it crazy if you want to. Crazy’s just a different point of view.

Maybe someone else will try out a smile.
—me strauss Letting me be

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Morning

I always loved the Cheshire cat. How, with a grin as big as his, could he be considered scary?

Smiles are good, friends even better, both are irreplaceable.

Ahh what a piece to read to get my day started :)

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Jennifer,
You are the smile that gets my days started these days. Nice to think we're in the same state together,

smiles,
Liz

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the wonderful comment :) (<--see that you put a smile on my face)

:) Ahh so you're enjoying this dreary wet weather with me! I don't mind rain but 8 days of it and I'm ready for a little sun!! Just a little, that's all I ask :)

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hey Jennifer,
Have a great at work!

Anonymous said...

Hey you, psychic glue, we should be the ones thanking you :)

Anonymous said...

Gosh I know that feeling - you paint it so well that its tangible, and yet I am still most pleased for you - which I guess means I could do with a little extra lift, by comparison.

Anonymous said...

But thats great!
I love being happy for friends only slightly more than I love recognising personal targets - which is a lot.

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Cheryl,

Thank you. Keep remembering that the bad times don't last forever and they always have little moments that the sun comes peeking through.

I'm glad to have a friend like you.

smiles,
Liz

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Melly,

Thanks for the fun and cheery message. I can always count on you for adding a little more to whatever it is I'm smiling about.

smiles,
Liz

Anonymous said...

"Crazy's just a different point of view."

Indeed it is.

When I come here and read what you write I feel like a starving man with 30 seconds to eat. I gorge and don't taste some of it till hours after I leave your table.

You serve some of the best words on the Internet Lizzy Bizzy! There you have a another new name too!

I'm clearly my mind of everything right now - I'm here - present - in this moment - doing nothing but smiling right back at you. A big 'ole squinty smile. |D

I'm glad you never run out of smiles and have plenty to share with the rest of us.

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hey Mark,
How great to see you smiling right back at me. We probably look like a couple of grinning fools. But then we're the ones having a good time so who cares about the rest.

You're a good 'un.

Smiles,
Liz

Anonymous said...

I enjoy a good buzz of the funnies, and the happy stuff.

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Lance,
Yeah. We just don't remember to do it often enough sometimes.
smiles,
Liz

Anonymous said...

Liz:
"Crazy’s just a different point of view." Yes it is, but expressed in such an effervescent, life affirming post, who's to argue otherwise. I love the image of the sandbox, by the way. This was just the Friday night, pick me up that I needed. Smiling back at you . . .
Scot

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Scot,
Great to see you here and smiling.
That makes a Friday night for me.

Wet sand is a fun image, kind of says it all doesn't it?

I just felt like smiling.
Liz