What Makes You Get Up In The Morning

I was very sick as a kid, nearly died one time, but seriously sick a few other times and I remember waking up in hospitals, cheerful about simply waking up because it meant I wasn't dead.

You can't help having a fairly optimistic attitude when you start from such a place. Alive -- Thumbs Up. Dead -- well, no thumbs, no nothing.

And I was thinking the other day about what makes me get up in the morning these days. That's easy. I have a great new job in a great office where other great people arrive early in the morning, showered, shaved, shod and dressed in cute clothes, ready to work, to be smart, to be fun, to be funny, to be kind. It's all good. And I have a great kid, big enough now to be in high school. And a wonderful fiance, big-hearted enough to make me very happy. And I have some wonderful friends, couldn't manage without them.

I really feel so lucky. I've always been a terrifically grateful, easily amused, very appreciative person. Even when things go badly, I'm hopelessly the Pollyanna, seeing all sorts of good in bad. Again. You're alive, so how GREAT is that?!

I got stuck in a terrible traffic jam, in a yellow NYC cab, in a pounding rainstorm, thunder, lightning, the works, once a while back, enroute to Kennedy airport with a business associate. He was so upset about being late and probably missing the plane, just beside himself, but I had a gigantic crush on the guy, so I couldn't have been happier. Getting stuck in a cab with HIM! Yes! We were very late, but, not surprisingly, so was the plane, so we didn't miss it. I thought it was a wonderful day.

So, I want to ask you what makes you get up in the morning, and if it's hard to do these days, try to put more of the good stuff back into your life if it's not there. Just add a few things. If you're not going out dancing enough, go. If you're not playing music with friends like you used to and want to do it more, please dust off that guitar. If you're working with people you can't stand, find a new job, even in this economy, you can and you should. Give yourself a good reason to get up in the morning.

[Editor's note: I used too many commas here and I haven't prooofreadd this. More later.]