practice pronoia

wow. small one: randall’s overcharged me a dollar for an item… i thought i would just be refunded my dollar. I got back my purchase price plus a penny :D

bigger one: an ex-friend was supposed to have fixed my washing machine; he didn’t. but because I was smart enough to purchase and extended warranty for what I thought was a lot when i purchased it the repairs were all covered including the ex-friend’s mess-up. what could have been a $500+ repair cost me basically nothing. awesome!

oh yeah, i also managed to find seven 4-leaf clover in one ptch when i went 4-leaf clover hunting recently :D

thanks God :D, You are out to bless me!

i have a neighbor that has a disability and can understand mine. we have started our own little group of two i jokingly called ‘the cripple chicks’. we also came up with plan ‘p’ for days that we have made plans to do something together but our bodily hurts make too difficult to keep (‘p’ stands for ‘pain’ and it is meant to be an amusing skip from plans ‘b’ thru ‘n’ directly to plan ‘p’ if we are unable to keep plan ‘a’;).) she ‘gets’ me. we both affirm and encourage one another. we help one another readjust how we speak about ourselves and our situations… we insert positives where there came a negative. where else in the world could someone live next door to someone who understands because they go through similar things? that is a blessing most definitely!

just like we decided we are not ‘disabled’ but differently abled :). blessed!

yippee yahooey! a friend of mine has been soooo gracious to me! he looked at my broken washing machine and told me he thought it was the motor (major expense that!) but when he did finally get into the machine said ‘count yourself lucky today, it is only the belt’, YES! it is a blessing that it is such a minor thing to fix! Thank God! and thanks that i have a friend who is there to help out for free! he also is going to replace the broken lighter in my car too! woo hoo!

i want to bless this guy as much as he is blessing me. he won’t take it but i am trying to give him my roto-zip that i have no place to use it; he would get more use out of it anyway and i feel like it is a small price to pay for him being so gracious with his time and skill.

my neighbor also complimented me on my artistic skills and she herself has an art degree. that is a blessing to have a fellow artist like my efforts :D

coolies!

all my life i have been an ‘optimistic pessimist’ meaning i had hoped for the best but expected the worst. since i have had the attitude that i am blessed and am the recipient of generous love (some say it is from ‘the universe’, some call it from God. but to me whatever works, works! :D)... well the blessings have been slowly trickling in. God has blessed me so much!...

• my neighbor got doubles of several magazines and gave me the duplicates. she also gives me her used ones that look brand new.

• i went to a church meeting and came home with lasagna dinner and bread for the next day

• my daughters needed pants and a generous lady from church just so happened to have some she didn’t need and they fit my girls perfectly

• i have medication for free for awhile

• someone has offered to fix my broken washing machine for free when they get into town

• my daughters got free smoothies from another lady at church one night

• someone told me about a co-op type of food program that is a wonderful bargain for food. and it tastes good too! my food funds will go farther!

• i had enough food to be able to bless my neighbor with some

• my grandpa sent me some Christmas funds that will really help for the Christmas i splurged on

• i have several people who want to help me with some doll projects when a few months ago there were zero

• i found my bathtub cut-off valves to stop a pernicious leak

• i was the recipient of a mini-cranium game

• i stumbled across a scholastic 50% off ALL BOOKS sale. i found several really nice low cost Christmas gifts there and i signed up for the newsletter announcing all such sales

• i found a game adapter the kids wanted for Christmas at 50% off

• starbucks had a holiday cheer day and gave away free drinks and gifts for children and i was blessed enough to be there

i think that will do for now. but trust me this list could go on and on.

my son and i went to a toy store chain a few days ago and while we were in the quarter machine section we spied $3!

my daughter seems to have a natural affinity for being blessed… we were in a food store chain and we passed the quarter machines. she really wanted a stone necklace but i was fresh out of quarters so i had to deny her request. lo and behold we go out to the car and the necklace she wanted was on the ground near the car!!! she is forever finding small change and such as well. i have been taking cues from her lol

i am now a team member due to the graciousness of a certain penguin… go penguin go!!

http://www.thelittlepenguin.com/emails/dancing.gif

EDIT: the chitra sent me an invite to the team as well… pronoia already strikes like lightning :D

what i call the ‘pollyanna factor’¹ is a big part of my beliefs but i think that pronoia is a more expanded version in that its optimism is more pervading than the pollyanna variety.

i have been trying to practice positive affirmations with myself since i need to rewire all the ‘tapes’ that have been playing in my psyche since i was a wee lass… go me!

_{1 pollyanna factor: the outlook that every cloud has a silver lining; hoping for the best. however people who have seen the movie will note even pollyanna had a sour spell, i hope to avoid that practicing both varieties of ‘optimistic reasoning’}