Attitude
My last trip home I brought back a stone with the word “attitude” etched into it. I had seen it laying around in my mom’s house for years and several times I had thought to ask if I could have it. It always reminded me of the time my dad pulled me aside years ago when Matthew was a baby and tried to console and give advice on dealing with the skin disease Matthew had been born with. He told me that having the right attitude would help me accept and cope with it.
I have to confess that I it took me years and years to find peace regarding Matthew’s skin disease… I never perfected the “right” attitude which would have saved me a mountain of grief. Honestly, I don’t think it’s so simple to grow the seeds of “right” attitude… I think they grow as you apply them to your life experiences… Maybe in the end, that’s why we associate wisdom with older people.
Anyway…I never forgot what my dad said to me. He planted the seed even though it has taken years and years for it to grow and bear a tiny bit of fruit.
So…. now I have this six inch or so stone in my bathroom and I see the word “attitude” all the time. I’ve never really thought a lot about what exactly “attitude” is…. I think it’s one of those words you hear so often that you assume you know what it is. I’ve heard “change your attitude”… “get a better attitude”…. “your attitude stinks”… but when I try to think of what the word means… I can’t come up with a good definition. I do know it has to do with the perspective at which you look at something.
Soooo….. I looked it up online and found this definition:
Attitude: a complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways
Wow… that sounds complicated… and hard to consciously do! It’s not like a garment that you can put on and take off. Attitudes grow slowly and are tested with each life experience… and if we hone them and allow the best to become a part of how we live, the right attitude can be a most useful tool down the road.