A very good year

I wonder if it is all in the outlook when we decide what is good and what is not. There was a time when I found myself in the midst of a series of bad years. Everything just went wrong, from forming a new business to forming new relationships. I had the opposite Midas touch, no matter what I chose to do, it was bad news. Of course, the key word is choice.

So, since January of 2010 things have been improving and this may have just as much to do with astronomical hoo haa as it does with personal outlook. I woke up on that cold January and knew that the previous 5 years were a test and I had survived and it was time to make changes. Some would take longer to process, like finding a way to the Sketchy the Addict removed from the premises, and some would not take long at all, a mental road map as it were.

This year has been kind of amazing. It started with me making a final payment on a debt I incurred a couple of years ago when I sold my house. In some ways I thought of that as a shameful end to my life in the Pacific Northwest, but when I wrote that final check and a week later got an official letter thanking me, it was just a little bit amazing.

Around that time I offered up this blog as some sort of advice forum and all of a sudden I was flooded with letters, some heartfelt, some not, but over a hundred emails came in and every now and then I post one and pretend I know the answer. Instead of this blog following the exploits of the banking/financial world, it has become something different and different is proving to be a good thing.

Tangible things matter. Email and electronic postings are fine and give people something to read while they use the bathroom, but in the end it is the things we do, and the things we do for others that really matter. In January I decided to rid my house of unwanted stuff, some of it good stuff, some just unnecessary stuff, but all of it taking up space and not being used. I made over 5 trips to the local Goodwill store and donated everything from clothes to computers to art work and it was a glorious few days. First, for me, it cleaned out the house and second, for people in general, they would be able to buy decent stuff for a cheap price. Win win.

I have a friend of a couple of years from Little Falls New York. A year or so ago I almost purchased a house in Little Falls, which is a small community near Utica. It is a beautiful little town, old buildings, great parks and very nice people. I had befriended a young carpenter there and when I was looking at a house that needed a lot of work, he would meet me at the house with the real estate person and he made a list of all the things the house would need to be livable. We have been in touch the last few weeks, his construction company is slow in the winter and he has offered his services to finishing up some of the projects in this Pittsburgh house. He has offered to stay here until Spring, do the work, enjoy life in Pittsburgh and charge me, well, nothing.

Now, good friends don't usually work for free, but there is a point here. Good friends do step up, they offer, they do what they can, and they kind of expect the same in return. This falls into why this is an amazing time. Economy sucks, and so many people are looking for anything. Now, I do not have a ton of money, but we have good dinners and a dog who seems only capable of love, so staying with us is kind of a treat all unto itself.

When I say this has been a good year so far, that does not mean it has not had any negative sides to it. My sense is that we all face some sort of drama in our lives, sometimes daily, sometimes hardly ever, but no matter when it shows up, it really is a matter of perspective on how we deal with it. Bad things happen, sad things too, we deal and move on. Good things happen, let's focus on those and see how that works.