An old friend of mine recently passed away. Before he died, he told me the best way to be happy is to be grateful.  He explained that it’s damn near impossible to be filled with anger when you’re filled with thankfulness. 

I clung to that advice for dear life this week. 

I feel like there is an overabundance of anger in the world lately.  Or maybe it just feels like there’s more of it because the Internet allows us to see and comment and argue about everything. 

Regardless, it’s hot out there. 

And the truth is, we have every reason to be angry.  People lie.   Greed is pervasive.  Injustice abounds. White nationalism has come out of the shadows. And we have it all thrown in our faces every second of the day. 

It dawned on me recently that—just because we have an excuse to be angry—doesn’t mean we should use it.   

In my little world, a lot of people dropped the ball on me this week.  And I had every right to be enraged.  But even though I had good reason, it didn’t feel good. I felt emotionally drained at the end of every day.  The small charge I got from being justifiably mad didn’t make up for how exhausting it was. 

And that’s when I remembered my friend’s words. 

By Friday night, I had made the decision to direct my energy away from anger and into appreciation. I threw a small happy hour for all of the volunteers who have helped me build my restaurant.  It was therapeutic.  We drank champagne. By the end of the night, I was my old self again. 

Reader, if you find yourself justifiably hotheaded this week, consider finding something else to do with your precious energy.  The subject of your anger is not worth losing your positivity over; life is too short to waste time on those people and things that “do you wrong.”  The people who “do you right” deserve it all. 

I’m filled with thankfulness for the people who have done right by me, including you for keeping up with this little blog.  I’ll see you next Sunday. -Em