Open your curtains, turn down the thermostat, unplug the technology , make your day brighter and go outside to play. Whether you have children or not taking a journey outside can easily brighten your day. I know sometimes it's hard to look at the bright side of life when everything seems so dark, but if you look for these small glimmers of light you'll find that they lead to one large spotlight. YOU.

We create our outlooks by our own intensions. Its hard to believe that if we intend to live happily it will just happen, but think about it. If we dwell on the things that don't go our way and forget how much we would appreciate what we originally desired, the negative is sure to shine through.     My goal is only to gain an interest in making our surroundings positive. Our beautiful town has a potential like no other. Our community has the privilege of being on the shore of one of the worlds most beautiful rivers. Why then do we not take advantage of this? Why not have an annual celebration of the beauty in what we have. This would create many opportunities for our community.

In the last few years technologies have skyrocketed beyond our imaginations. But why must there always be a bigger and better idea, before we have had the chance to completely understand the original thought? Our perception of reality is skewed by what we wish we had.

I have always taught my boys to be thankful for what they have. This will be the quote they will someday say and think "My mom used to say that all the time." I can only hope they do. This is what really keeps us going. If we aren't forgetting what we have, then we are less apt to be sorry for what we don't have.

Our turn in eternity starts when we are concieved. We make our way through the life cycle just like the science books have told us, right? We have filtered through our resources and our technologies like no other generation has. Our need to have a better lifestyle has impeded the proper upbringing of our children.

Our children are a generation based on instant gratification. We have created a world for our kids that has them trapped in the hands of plastic and HD screens, with the plastic in their hands they have come to rely on the ease of it. They feel the sense of acceptance when their phones go off in the ringtone of their choice, to find someone they hardly know, commenting on a post they "liked" on a social network. Strangely, as parents we find comfort in this because the fear of our children being bullied is somehow melted away with the ring of Lady Gaga coming from a cell phone.