Who Has Your Ear?

A few weeks back I bought a bag of bananas at Costco. Mostly green with a little yellow, just the way I like to buy them so they don't turn brown in two days. Well two days later I look over and the whole bunch was past yellow and speckled with rotting brown patches, not just spots. I scrutinized the bunch, totally pissed off and confused. They went straight from green to spoiled, what happened to my yellow? Upon inspection I found one banana in the middle of the cluster actually rotting in its skin. It was mushy and oozing liquified banana juice. Nasty. So I threw them all away (yes I know I could have made banana bread but didn't). Then I got to thinking about what a ridiculous metaphor this is for life. There is wisdom in the expression, "One bad apple spoils the bunch." Because it does! The one rotting banana ruined all my other bananas, rendering them unable to be consumed in mere days.

What about people, attitudes, and opinions? The things we unwittingly surround ourselves with in our everyday lives. My experience tells me negativity is as infectious as a rotting banana. Fear is stimulated by the moanings and groanings of others. Unhappiness sprouts from the seeds of malcontent. One rotting soul spoils many spirits. Sick with an illness great portions of society either don't believe exists or refuse to comprehend the severity of incapacitation, we can get lots of negativity shooting our way. Doubt, criticism, dismissal, or worse, speculations of insanity. After listening to this long enough one can become horribly sucked in, believing the hype, angry at the accusations or deflated and defensive. I know it takes very little before I willingly hold out my hand and allow myself to be led down the path of anxiety and depression. Sometimes I can get myself there all on my own!

But lately I've been ignoring all that crap. Just don't have the time to indulge myself in one more round of woe is me. When the wah wah whas of life come at me I just turn around and walk away. If my brain decides to wrap itself around how awful everything is and I find myself stewing over the lack of a remedy I go do something else, anything else, to distract myself from that nasty point of view. This week alone I cleaned out four kitchen cupboards, organized and updated my address book and actually had dinner on the table more days than not. All in the name of redirecting my thinking! And when it comes from an outside source, an agitator sitting on my shoulder chattering in my ear planting seeds of discord and kvetching about how awful life is, I brush them off and squash their nasty oozing infectiousness. Misery loves company and I am quite content to send them on their way to go find other company.

Thanks for joining,
Leah