So two posts in one day...wow. I was a little on the rushed side this morning having decided to go out for a run and then start on my lists of things to do only to look at the clock and see I had to run out for a few hours. A blurrr!

I have been working on paperwork most of the afternoon. I deal with so much paperwork at work that I am usually loathed to do it at home. But then it backs up. Its tax time and financial aide filing time and I have wrap up a major project as part of volunteer school group, so there is enough to keep me busy for a while. So as I look out in the sunny yard and the rest of the family is off doing more enjoyable things I am doing this. But it is all for a good cause.

This post isn't about complaining, in fact it is about the opposite. I tend to be a "glass is half full" type of guy. Not that I don't complain or feel sorry for myself at times, but I usually get around to the positive and usually try to find the positive in what is going on around me. Sometimes its difficult and sometimes easy and many times it just takes shifting your perspective a bit.

The last couple of weeks I have been feeling like the cheerleader. At work there are major systems upgrades going on and as staff complain that the new features aren't working the way they want, I am pointing out that the new features are finding errors that the old version didn't and once they are fixed it will run fine. Also that while the testing it a pain, it is going mostly well. Rah rah rah!

I'm a parent volunteer for a school a major event (6 shows) that has just been completed for the year. It took more than 3 months and lots of work to put on and many weekend of some people doing things couldn't do and I did things I'd rather not have had to do, but hey we do it for the kids. While most forks were great, I repeatedly heard from a certain group about the parents who wouldn't do "anything" or about the ones who were just willing to bring food for the day long rehearsals or to sell at the shows. Yeah there are always a certain number that don't help out in just about any community endeavor but there were lots of people that in fact were helping out in ways that they could and for some that way was food and say bless them for that gift because that means the rest of us don't have to do it. I also knew that for some of the kids involved that this was a really important thing developmentally and socially to be part of, that their family lives were on the dysfunctional side and there was no way their parents would help. If they were pressured then they would pull their kid from participating. Why is it that we could see this yet the complainers could not?

So each time I heard a complaint, I'd make the correction about how many people I have seen helping out and try to give the positive spin. I 'm not even going to talk about the people that don't help because some of that just becomes gossip.

Then I hear that they really wanted was more people with specific skills. So don't dump on the people who help because you want more people to do something else.

At that point I asked for stage time ( I can be nicely pushy at times) and prepped my "thank you" to all the volunteers that helped out and then did the plug for next year. I heard no more complains for the remainder of the shows. The complainers knew where I stood.

This morning I head off to church and things are different, people are in different places in the church, the music is different and someone forgets to do something at a key moment. I had to smile as I saw people maneuvering around human obstacles and waiting longer than usual and I could almost hear the complaining and I am sure it will be heard later.

Trying to keep a calm sense, I thought of the biblical stories of the time right after the Crucifixion and the chaos and disorder that must have been felt by the apostles and followers of Jesus. Here it is the week after Easter and we too have a little bit of chaos and disorder, how appropriate.

I must admit that being cheerleader is wearing and after a while I want to escape and just be somewhere where no one is going to complain and I find myself slipping into a mood that is that of a crank. The scanner at the grocery store is slow, the car behind me is always too close, the glass is nearing the half empty stage. That is when I need a break.

For now, having been out in the wonderful spring weather, having filed my taxes and organized piles of paper into what it should be, there is still a lot I didn't accomplish this weekend. But there also a lot I did.

So for now I'll get off my soap box. My mission continues, to try to look on the bright side of life, to try not to dwell in the pits too long when things have me down and continue to look for the opportunities and doors that open and not just look at the doors that closed.