More Pollyanna Than Pollyanna

"See the prism! See how it breaks the light into a rainbow?!!! Raindrops do the same."

It's such a Pollyanna world view.

When my mind offers me thousands of nuances, why would I choose any but the most beautiful? It seems that the times I do are times that I'm off-balance, off-center internally. It seems at those times, I'm not thinking really about the world, but instead that I'm thinking about my place in it.

She was a child -- Pollyanna -- a character in a story. She's become a stereotype of "what's too good to be true and too sweet to take seriously." Yet, supposing a person had her world view, lifting up, looking up, without unconditions or expectations that the world would respond in a negative way. Could just the believing and being make it true?

Seeing a rainbow inside a raindrop is more than "Pollyanna," it's a choice for hope and beauty. It's a choice for a better future and chance for human understanding. Even the real-life Ben Franklin knew that where we focus is a predictor of who and what we will be.

So, I'll hang my heart on the story of little girl with relentless positivity. I'll value my resiliance and not worry about being naive.

I don't suppose I'll ever be more Pollyanna than Pollyanna, but I sure can aspire to be.

--me liz strauss, Letting me be

Looking Up from Under

Take the choice about where we look and what we see. . . .

I used to be ultra-sensitive to a feeling of when I needed to get out from under. Being under was a stifling location, claustrophobic and limiting. As I think on it, those limits were merely my inability to spread my view and take in the beautiful detail of where I was currently standing.

Under can be a learning place and a place to shine so brightly.

From underneath I can see the delicate workings of what holds life together. I can feel the shade of what's above me. I'm sheltered from the rain and the sharp sunlight. I'm gentled by the diffused rays that filter through to fall upon me.

I am more beautiful, softer, and less likely to draw attention . . . people have to want to see me, when I'm under. Then when they do, they see. They see.

I am quietly there and beautiful, looking up from under.