Optimism: Hanging Up Stockings Every Christmas!

Every year for as long as I can remember I have hung up Christmas Stockings. And every year for as long as I can remember there has never been anything in my Christmas Stockings on Christmas morning. With a glass of Holiday Cheer in hand, I ponder this situation, deciding that I must be an extremely optimistic person. So I look up the definition of optimism: hopefulness and confidence about the future or successful outcome of something: a tendency to take a favourable or hopeful view, derived from the Latin optimum, meaning best. Well, that does describe me, I am sixty years old and still hanging up Christmas Stockings, working for World Peace, and believe there are "good" men. I pour another glass of Holiday Cheer and Google optimistic and get an article:

 The Power of OptimisticThinking by Susan M. Heathfield
The power of optimism cannot be over-rated as a factor in success and personal growth and development. Optimism allows you to see the positive aspects of any situation and enables you to capitalize on each possibility. Optimism may be partly responsible for success in most aspects of life. Some research exists that demonstrates that optimism results in higher achievement.
Part of the power of optimism is the result of changing the outlook of the little voice in your head. Constantly looking at the negative and seeing no options when situations go awry, negative self-talk limits your success. Positive self-talk expands your ability to achieve, to learn, and to accomplish. An optimistic belief in yourself and your capabilities to positively impact situations, even ones that appear negative, fuels success. Try gently moving your mind into positive, optimistic thoughts whenever you find yourself feeling negative, depressed, or wallowing in despair. The rainbow is there; you just need to see it.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! I've done the workshops, I've read the books, I bought the tapes, and there's never anything in my Christmas Stocking and there is not World Peace, and don't get me started on that "good man" bullshit. I pour another glass of Holiday Cheer and remember  how the tradition of hanging the Christmas stocking began - oh, no, say it's not true - so I Google it:

 Very long ago, there lived a poor man and his three very beautiful daughters. He had no money to get his daughters married, and he was worried what would happen to them after his death
Saint Nicholas was passing through when he heard the villagers talking about the girls. St. Nicholas wanted to help, but knew that the old man wouldn`t accept charity. He decided to help in secret. He waited until it was night and crept through the chimney.
He had three bags of gold coins with him, one for each girl. As he was looking for a place to keep those three bags, he noticed stockings of the three girls that were hung over the mantelpiece for drying. He put one bag in each stocking and off he went. When the girls and their father woke up the next morning, they found the bags of gold coins and were of course, overjoyed. The girls were able to get married and live happily ever after.


I pour another glass of Holiday Cheer - No gifts in my Stockings - No World Peace - No Get Married and Live Happily ever after - No Bags of Gold - (I'm still paying off my worthless ex). I trudge down the stairs, open the back of the SUV and start to go through the gifts I've packed for the trip back home - Where in the hell is that bottle of Brandy I bought for Uncle Harry! 

Merry Christmas and to all a Good Night!