
Perspective rolls in slowly, like a vacation storm, and you have to decide whether to sulk in the shadows or swim in the rain.
Are you a glass half full, or glass half empty kind of person?
I thought about this yesterday as I hung out in Florida with my mother to celebrate her birthday. We had the pool to ourselves, so we spent an enjoyable hour paddling around and chatting.
“You know it’s raining,” I mentioned at one point, though that fact had been obvious for some time.
“It is,” my mom said. “But that doesn’t really matter when you’re swimming, does it?”
Though my mom would never call herself a glass half full kind of person (she’s too much a worrier for that), she does have an interesting relationship with weather. For instance, she loves to go to Disney World, but she especially loves Orlando on a chilly day with a little rain in the forecast.
“It keeps the crowds away,” she says.
Birthdays require a little perspective too. Do you want to mourn the passing of another year, or celebrate the dawning of a fresh one? I’ll take the latter and I’ll try to remember that when my big day rolls around.
Back in Wisconsin, we pass a street sign on our way “Up North”. Turn left, and you travel on Happy Lane, turn right and it’s Old Dump Road. Same street, different names.
The older I get, the more I intend to travel on Happy Lane, to toast life with a glass that’s half full, and to celebrate birthdays and the rain.




My glass is definitely half full. At least. I’m an eternal optimist (it’s a curse, at times.).
Mine too! I knew we were kindred spirits!
It doesn’t matter if the glass is half empty or half full. Either way there is clearly room for more whiskey.
That’s very true. Cheers!