Question: Worth Recording the Bad?

If you’re around the internet much, you’ve probably seen the meme floating around of writing down the good things as they happen to you, putting them in a jar and then at the end of the year, pulling out the jar and reading about all the wonderful things that happened.

I think this a lovely idea and have written down a few things for this year (in case I decide to really do it, I want to be prepared, and if I decide not to keep going, well, it just cost me a few scrps of paper, some pleasantly-focussed contemplation and a few seconds of time).

It suddenly occurred to me this morning, and I will grant you that it may well be my cold-infested mind and body doing the thinking today rather than the normal almost-logical one, to wonder what would happen if I recorded the things that piss me off?  That anger me, make me snarl and growl and hate myself or someone else?

To be clear, I’m not talking about looking for every little annoying thing possible to record.  This would be for the things that I’m already not letting instantly go of.

Would I be amplifying the negative feelings?

Is that even possible if I’m already dwelling on them for periods of time?

Or would it take them outside of me?  Help me to let go more?

If I did both at once, would one jar outstrip the other?  Would I make conscious choices to focus on the positive?

What do you think?  Is this an experiment worth trying?

What Matters in Your Moment?

Every once in a while, usually when in the midst of a really good moment I’m not paying enough attendion to, I notice what’s important.

Lying on my couch, my fuzzy girl on my chest, I realize that I’m focussed on the television, on some movie or tv show that is already hard to recall.

And not on her, warm, purring and relaxed on my chest, one paw up to touch my cheek.

She’s getting old, my baby girl, over fourteen.  And she may have many years left, but also may not.

So I pulled away from the tv show, hugged her a little closer, focussed all my attention on all I felt with her curled up on me.

I took that moment into me.  Because she matters to me, far more than some generic entertainment.

What’s important in your moment?  Where is your attention?  These are the questions I hope to remember to ask myself more often.

~Abysmal Witch