What A.J. Said

Can you really choose your thorns and your roses? Can you really choose to be happy or sad? Can you really choose whether to see something as positive or negative? When a child gets a piece of candy, they will automatically see it as positive. When they drop it in the dirt, they will automatically see it as negative and cry. Sure, as a mature adult, I can say well, at least I got a taste of it before I dropped it and I didn’t really need the calories. Or I can problem solve, and pick it up and clean off most of the dirt and salvage what is salvageable. But is it naïve to think we can always turn everything into a positive? Aren’t there just really bad things that happen? Yes, there are, but we can always use them to some greater good. The loss of a possession can make one take better care of other things. The death of a friend can bring other friends closer. That is not to say “It was for the best” for bad things really are bad. But we CAN use bad things to lead to future good things, can’t we? So maybe we can’t find a way to call every thorn a rose, but we can certainly use the thorns to make us recognize the roses already put in out path and we can use the thorns to make us choose paths that will have more roses for us to encounter. Thanks, A.J., Eagle Scout, wise beyond your years.