Revive Your Spirits

I have had my spirits revived in so many ways this past couple of weeks. It has helped to wash away many of the frustrating self-doubts that had been oozing their way into my psyche. I wanted them gone, and I didn't want to have to find a pill to make them disappear!

My friend Jill told me that I was under the two month rule. She explained that for every $10,000 you want to earn from a job, you have to wait about a month to find said job. She was just about spot on. I am working within an industry that I wouldn't have even given another thought to had it not dropped in my lap while I was sitting on the swimming pool steps. And who gets a boss that rewards you with a bonus on their second day? Or who lets you, after four days on the job, take off for a couple of days to go on a trip?

Working perks aside, just knowing that somebody wanted to take a chance on ME lifted my spirits up so much. Each resume sent and not responded to was downright depressing. Running to the phone in hopes it was somebody, anybody,calling about a job offer only to find a telemarketer on the other side positively made me cry. And as that burden lifted, I began to see other things around me that truly did lift my spirits.

I had a little more money in the bank, so I could go get my hair cut. That lifted my 'do as well as my spirits! And in celebration of my new found job, she gave me a discount. That made me smile, and smiling is a really good spirit lifter.

But what really lifted my spirits was the comments from family about how much weight I had lost. That was the kicker!

I had been off track, not losing what I wanted to over the last few months. I had wanted to be twenty pounds less than I now was in order to make sure people noticed when I went to my family reunion. I was afraid that they would still see me as really fat. Because I had no husband or kids to bring to the gathering, I wanted to at least be noticed for looking good!

I had conveniently forgotten that I had already lost over forty pounds, and that it showed! And guess what? They did notice!

This reunion was a long time in the making. Of the ten kids born to my grandmother, every single branch had at least one of their descendants at the reunion. We came from all over, and we oohed and awwed over their kids and grand kids. We took lots of pictures, and there was a ton of hugging. And nobody went away disappointed about how much they had or had not changed. But the changes were all on the outside, not the inside where our psyches lurked.

The dark side of my spirit wanted to believe that my kinfolk would judge me and find me wanting. Fortunately, it never got to rear its ugly head. My good spirits side was determined to savor every moment of the reunion, and that side kept me smiling all day long.

I got quite a few comments about my weight loss, but what surprised me was that it did not matter! The reunion was about what we did as cousins or as brother or sisters, not what we looked like. Yes we had changed, and yes we decided at the last minute that name tags would help, but our childhood memories were all intact. All one hundred or so of us there had our spirits lifted right there in the Knights of Columbus Hall in Iowa, Louisiana.

One cousin, with whom I had connected with via Face Book, was particularly thrilled. She lost her dad first through a divorce, and later through his death. She didn't know hardly any of us. And of all of the second or third generations there, she had her spirits lifted the highest. She had found out who she was by visiting the past with all of her new-found relatives. Seeing her enjoy the experience truly made me feel loved.

Sometimes, all we need is a smile and a kind word or two to have our psyches tweaked. And those minor things make your spirit positively soar!