A Windy World
- 07
- 11
- 11
“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”
William Arthur Ward
Are you an optimist? A pessimist? A realist? Some combination thereof?
Campus Community
caution: extremely hot posts!
- Name My Baby
- On Being Shallow
- Why Do I Blog?
- What's Your Favorite TV Show?
- Is Television Ruining Our Writing (& Our Lives)?
- Name My Baby (Part Deux)
- Where's My Boy Friend?
- The Name Game
- The Blank Page
- Love @ Eleven Months
- Where Do You Live?
- Confessions. Cars. Coolness.
- Lipstick & Heels On a Little Boy
- Your Road
- Would You Tell?
- Name My Sister's Baby Girl!
- Where Are They Going?
- A Cry for Help
- My Book Has a Cover. (And I Have Chills.)
- Some Happy News!!!
- All Belly!
- I Love You Too
- Sergeant Patrick Hamburger (1981-2011)
- Wasted?
- Live. Love. Party. Pause.
- I Feel Fat
- Christmas Music in October?
- Words for Mom
- I Am Not a "Chinese Mother"
- Happy LAY Day!
- Confession: We Met in a Bar
- My Neighbor Matt Damon
- Moms Gone Wild
- To Leave Or Not To Leave. That Is The Question.
- Only Bad Things Happen Quickly
- On Approval
- The Ex Factor
- Welcome to the World, Baby B!
- Are You a Morning Person?
- My First Kiss
- Icing & Insecurities
- Ten Months Today
- Patton @ The Plaza
- What's Inside
- My Baby Is Two
- What Not To Say
- I Am Scared
- I Am a Woman. And I Write Fiction. (Uh Oh?)
- Way Ahead of Me
- "Always Do What You Are Afraid To Do"
Tweets Brewing Now
- "Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable." (Francis Bacon)
- Do I really want another? I'm not so sure. http://t.co/dHyXtQUX
- "A writer and nothing else: a man alone in a room with the English language, trying to get human feelings right." (John K. Hutchens)
Old School Posts
A Scrumptious Saturday Spread
Enjoy this lavish link buffet, a sweet and savory start to your Saturday. Chock-full of choices and calorie-free, so click away! Hilarious Heather Armstrong welcomes an univited house guest in the 34th week of her pregnancy: Fred The Protruding Belly Button. {Dooce} Bad mommies unite! A defWhere Were You Two Years Ago?
Two years ago, I woke up as a published author. My novel LIFE AFTER YES was officially out in the world. The day was surreal, and I remember it keenly. It was rainy. I had lunch with Mom and Husband. At that lunch, I had a glass or two of wine. To celebrate. To calm. I remember feeling kind oWhen Does Childhood Expire?
Yesterday, I waxed poetic about literal and metaphorical bologna. In so doing, I assured you (and myself) that the lone package of lunch meat in our big and empty fridge was still good. Not good as in gastronomically delectable. No. Good as in it had not yet expired. Leave it to me to take thisA Fresh Start for Husband
I have much to fill you in on. Little Girl is three months old today. My high school reunion turned out to be a lovely affair. I am continuing to have mini-but-magical epiphanies about my life. And I will tell you about all of these things, these good things, but today I must write about somethingTwenty-Four Weeks. Again.
I am twenty-four weeks pregnant. I was twenty-four weeks pregnant with Baby when Dad died. Of this time, I remember so much and so little. The waiting. The cursing. The contractions, innocuous but existent, that came from stress and sadness. I am having those contractions now too. I miss him.I Will Always Care
Recently, a friend asked me something. How did you learn to not care what other people think of you? I smiled. We were talking about my decision to walk away from law and to write. I told her that up to the point when I quit my job at the firm I'd never taken a real risk in my life. I haWould You Tell?
“Love is a game in which one always cheats.” Honore De Balzac If you knew someone was cheating on your friend, would you tell your friend? This is purely hypothetical. (I think. I hope.)On Being Heard (a.k.a. I'm Sorry)
When I first started blogging, I spent a ton of time visiting other blogs and leaving comments. I genuinely enjoyed this. There was, and is, something magical about stumbling into the words and worlds of others and getting lost. There is something intense and exquisite about realizing that in moA Fourth Daughter?
I named my fourth daughter. No, I'm not pregnant. It all happened in a dream. A particularly vivid dream. In this dream, I was pregnant again. And we learned that we were having another girl. A fourth. In this dream, we pondered baby names and, get this, I came up with one. A name I've neverThey Are Too Funny
The big girls. That's what I call them now that we have a tiny one around. And, really, they are getting big. And funny. These creatures? They make us laugh countless times a day. And this is a breed of laughter that is violent and deep and wonderful. The kind of laughter that makes me think: Li
- Archives by Month
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- Recent Posts
- I Want Another Baby
- Where Were You Two Years Ago?
- As Long As She Lets Me
- I Miss It (a.k.a. Four Months Without Wine)
- First
- Glimpses of Goodness
- Wow
- The Saying Place
- Use Your Words
- My First Due Date
- For Real
- En Route
- Fearless
- Recent Comments
- I know this feeling too…but I think it’s...
- I can relate, too! I am 35 and have two kids. The baby is...
- We are both done and not done. As you know, we are...
- Oh, I know EXACTLY how you feel. I can’t tell if it...
- How I understand this. Even while pregnant with this...
- i understand how you feel - for me, three was where it...
- I went through this this past fall and winter. I hated...
- You are speaking my thoughts exactly. I have 3 beautiful...
A realist with optimistic tendencies. I don’t think I was quite so optimistic before I got married, but now I feel I have to balance my husband, who leans pessimistic, but is much more vocal about his frustrations than I.
What cuties! I love the beach!
Peyton – So interesting that you mention your husband and his effect on your outlook because I think this is a really interesting question, namely how our partners change the way we see the world. Before meeting Husband, I think I was a bit (or far more) cynical. He is very optimistic soul and I think he has rubbed off on me some… What’s also interesting is that I think some of my cynicism has rubbed off on him… Anyway, I think that we often seek balance in our relationships. If one person is unduly stressed, I think the other tends to become mellow, etc… I am curious about this… about how our identities shift in the context of unions… (And, yes, the beach was great!)
Peyton beat me to answering my own question… I think I am mostly a realist. I think I’m pretty good at seeing things as they are without adding too much sunshine or doom and gloom to them… That said, depending on the day, I feel compelling surges of optimism break through. Obviously, I enjoy these moments even if I don’t entirely understand them fully… Of course there are also days where I tend to see things as half-empty; I imagine this is true for us all. What’s interesting (to me) though is that I think I am becoming more and more optimistic the older I get. This surprises me somewhat because adulthood is riddled with complexity and grays… I think it probably has something to do with my children, with their silliness, with the unmarred wonder in their eyes. No matter the source, I’ll take it
Wow… what a great post and thank you for that. The wind in my world is blowing at tornado level. I am having a hard time weathering the storm but after reading the quote I’m realizing that it’s because I’m adjusting my sails, and that’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take some time to adjust my sails to change direction. And that’s okay. Complaining about the storm, or just standing by hoping it’s going to blow over on it’s own is not going to work. What’s going to work is the change I put into it.
I feel exactly the same way Mary.. i thought my winds were far too strong, but maybe i’m just fighting the winds instead of adjusting my sails.
Thanks Aidan for a fantastic post
I think I’m pretty much a realist. While I frankly have not had too many disappointments in my lifetime (especially since my last year of college), I have had to be very flexible mostly because of my (and my husband’s) job. Being ultra flexible also means being a realist because you can never really get your heart set on one thing in particular.
Some who know me might say I’m an optimist because I often shoot for somewhat lofty goals…however, most of the times I’ve shot for these lofty goals, I’ve achieved them. This has given me the attitude of, “Why not?!” Having that kind of attitude really means I have to take things in stride and (cliche alert!) cross each bridge as I come to it. In doing so, I really can’t think too far ahead one way or the other.
Great pics
I have always thought of myself as an optimist, however, life has given me some very hard knocks and now from your post, I too realize that I am adjusting my sails… Oh boy this storm is very windy!
I like to think of myself as an optimist, but I think that the world has weathered me into more of a pessimist. After feeling heartbreak and its ensuing bitterness, I can’t help but feel like I am always bracing myself for the worst. I want to prepare myself for when the worst happens. Granted, I still have dreams and I try to envision both the best and worst case scenarios. Still, when you are taking in a lot of bad news, it can be really difficult to keep your head up and see the glass as half full.
Did you cut Big Girl’s hair?