What is your cup (of life)?

Half empty does not need to equal a negative. It just means you want more and will stive to get it. As a middle child with my younger sister being born on my birthday my focus has been on filling up my half empty cup. I think that this has spured me on and enabled me to overcome some tough times. Let's face it if you expect to be hit in the face with a kipper just grab it and eat it up!

I was watching an old Alan Titchmarsh "Love Your Garden" episode yesterday. They were doing a garden makeover for a wonderful 93 year old man. He had been imprisoned by the Japanese for nearly four years, and worked on the infamous 'death railway.'
He had suffered the most inhumane treatment, and seen the most dreadful things. Only his indomitable spirit kept him going. After the war he met the love of his life, but had lost her after 68 years of marriage. He was a wonderful painter, but could no longer access his little studio in his unkempt garden.
When asked what had kept him going through his miserable years of imprisonment, starvation and ill-treatment he said that he had tried to put the bad things to the back of his mind, and concentrate on the good. "Two men looked through the bars. One saw mud, the other saw stars." was how he put it.
I tend to have that attitude to life. My mother was always a worrier, seeing problems before they even arrived. I have a more optimistic nature. Even when the doctor found a lump in my side, a while ago, it never even occurred to me that it might be cancer (it wasn't) I just went along to the hospital expecting it to be nothing to worry about, and it was quickly sorted out.
I don't know if it's possible to change your nature. Whether you are born with certain attitudes to life, or develop them as you go along. I'm happy to be a "cockeyed optimist," as the old song says.

Having reflected on Monica's motto I do the reverse
Plan for the Worst - extra food and fuel for winter
Hope for the best - I don't have to use it.

It's not that I expect the worst but life can be miserable if you don't foresee what might happen.

kittylester
Yes indeed. There is much to be thankful for in life but, I'm ever mindful that there are some who endure very difficult circumstances, either financially, emotionally or healthwise, with a smile and an acceptance of their lot. Those people have my utmost respect and I wish I could help each and every one of them. Making a difference is, to me, the best feeling in the world.

Half full

I tried yesterday to write on this thread but found it impossible to confine myself to either a cup half empty or half full person.
Having been several times really lucky I am convinced that
life might still have something in store for me, so I could be half-full person only that then I feel really a full cup person.

When I am unlucky (broken engagement and broken heart)
then I was not a half empty cup person but an absolute miserable empty cup person.

My glass is so empty, I’m not totally convinced it ever had anything in it to start with

I'm an optimist with a half empty glass believing that some kind soul will spot my dilemma and replenish it.!

a great goal in life is to become the wonderful person your dog thinks you are!

I like to think my glass is half full but I'm mindful that I have never been truly tested. I've been very lucky in life. Gransnet reminds me of this most days.

In the first part of my life I was definitely a half empty type person, and then something really horrible happened and I had to make a decision whether to let it upset me for ever or rise above it. I rose above it fought against it and have never looked back. Very grateful for all the simple pleasures now and count myself very lucky.

Definitely half full. I feel blessed even though I don't have a lot.

I’m a Pollyanna - in fact 2 of my friends call me that on a regular basis. Which is not to say my life has been a bed of roses. I daresay very few of us on here could say that. We don’t get to this stage of life without some clips around the ear. My father died at the age of 47y from cancer and we helped mum nurse him at home. Awful. And after the recession we ‘lost’ £100,000 (to boring to go into here). I think what I’m trying to say (badly) is that we do all get bad stuff happening. I said to my husband after the financial loss ‘we’ll if our bad luck in life is loss of money we have still been luckier than most as we have our good health plus that in our family and we are indeed fortunate ‘. Even during those bleak times I could appreciate what I still had. I’m a glass half full. But. ... maybe I’ve just been lucky. Good health isn’t fairly distributed amongst us through life is it? I’m sure those of us with sad happenings that way would, in all fairness, feel very different.

Half full most of the time. Despite the past few years being somewhat of an endurance test, there is a great deal for which I am very grateful.

think mine has always been half empty. but who cares just do your best. give and dont expect anything back..be there for friends.those friends? who are irritated .. give them a hug.

Mostly half full or more, but I have my moments!

You just sound like a bouncy person
It’s lovely that you can bounce back from adversity That’s a real gift you have & a shining example to others I’m sure

My Mum always said I was a 'born optimist' because I looked on the bright side and never took life too seriously. She was the total opposite, I would say her glass wasn't even quarter full! But as I have got older my optimism seems to be evaporating from my glass. I lost a much loved relative several years ago and it hit me like a ton of bricks, and I'm still struggling to recover my sparkle and chirpy good humour. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a miserable person but I now seem to dwell (too much) on the 'what ifs'. It's probably just an age thing. I'm well aware that many people have suffered terrible tragedies and unhappiness in their lives, and I really can't imagine how they cope or survive that. And I am totally thankful for all that I have: wonderful husband, children, DILs, GC, friends and reasonably good health, so I do my best to focus on that and try to top up my glass to half full again. Cheers everyone!

My feelings on this vary. If things are generally going well, I can be very optimistic about a setback, but if there has been an unfortunate chain of events, as can so often happen, I can swing to the “half empty” side. I do try to see the positive, but it isn’t always my first thought!

Always a cup half empty, lost my son 11 years ago.
People have been unkind and said you should be
Over that by now but we won’t be ever. We carry
On for dd and gd and remain as positive as we can
But it never leaves you.

Glass half empty here. Sorry, can’t help it.
Anxiety has a lot to answer for.

It is the same thing isn’t it ? it is how the cup owner views it,
Which can change on a daily business, sometimes I see my cup has half empty Other optimistic days it’s half full.
Sadly there are times when for some folks there isn’t even a Cup!

Sheilasue
I can't imagine that one would ever 'get over' that kind of loss. Be kind to yourself and let silly unkind remarks float by, meanwhile, I hope you can focus on all the happy memories you shared with him.
No-one can ever taint or remove them.

I am the same as Greenfinch.

After nearly losing my baby grandson last spring, I have always considered my cup to be overflowingly full so long as my dear ones are well and happy.

That’s me personally - I am a lucky woman, but it doesn’t blind me to the terrible hardship and unhappiness in the world today.

In that respect the poor old cup is down to the dregs!

Definitely a half full and silver linings type. I was diagnosed with stage 2 bladder cancer in 2016, Had chemo and a urostomy and I now no longer have to get up in the night fir the loo. 2018 I was having a check up and the scan found a lump in the breast, diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, had a lumpectomy and radiotherapy starts beginning of December, but feeling lucky as no chemo this time and how lucky was I that I was still having the regular scans or they wouldn't have found the deep breast tissue