Rabbit #1

My first rabbit, my pre-rabbit, my bunny if you will, is to be realistic about some changes I want to make in my life.  It is my past habit, my tendency, to go big.  Old me would probably grab a lined notepad and make a list of 25 things I need to do differently.  I would re-write the list a few times to ensure it was as neat as possible.  If it got crumpled on an edge, I'd re-write.  If I crossed anything off, I'd re-write.  I love crossing off but I love re-writing even more.

So in an effort to break with past actions that don't always bring me success, I'm sticking with five things I'm going to do differently and see what happens.  Maybe nothing, most likely something, hopefully something big.

Today is number 1:  Be cheery

I've decided that pessimism is soooo 2008.  We were all there; you remember, right?  The crash, the companies going down, the bad, bad news that kept coming, coming, coming.  Despite the glimmer of hope ushered in by President-Elect Obama, there was so much ugly going on one could hardly celebrate accordingly.  I don't think of myself as a negative person, but I definitely consider myself what I've liked to call a "realist".  I don't like sales people who push, I don't fall for scams, I don't listen to telemarketers, I read the fine print.  Somewhere in all this practicality and reality I got a little grumpy.  I'm never going to be that girl; you know, the one in your neighborhood who is always smiling with perfect Chiclet-teeth, who waves with her whole shoulder, who has that trill in her voice and says, "He-loooow!".  That's not me - I don't do saccharine.  But I do do warm.  And I definitely do funny.  So I think it's time I throw cheerful in the mix and see what bubbles to the surface.  I'll never be one to lose the sarcasm and edge - that's what my people do, we snark a little.  But the older I get the more I appreciate a cheerful person, whether she be a sales clerk, a fellow driver, a bank teller or a friend. Cheerfulness isn't necessarily happiness, but it's the decision to let your outward self manifest your inward decision to be optimistic, to be sunny.

Up top is a picture of my Isabel.  At five, she continues to reign as the cheeriest person in our family.  Though being five has ushered in the WHINES and TEARS era, she smiles all day long, is always game for anything, and has a lilt in her voice that lets you know she's a happy clam.  While she inherited none of this exuberance from either myself of my melancholy husband, a genetic miracle occurred and we got this little ray of sunshine.  And for the next week, she'll be my model.

Chin up, smile on, happy voice, go to it.  Most people in my neighborhood and such probably think I'm pretty cheerful for the most part, but man they haven't seen The Beast at home.  Girl can launch into a tirade at a moment's notice.  But for this week, I will try a smile.  Probably fake sometimes, I'm hoping my insides get the message my outside is sending.

I'll return and report.