I must admit to leading a pretty sheltered life here with Miss Daisy. Prior to embarking on my RV voyage, I didn’t watch much television nor follow the news much; now, while on the road I don’t even have a television and can’t remember the last time I read the newspaper. I just find it too negative and draining on my energy for the most part and that it can paint a skewed view of the world we live in.

The brief amount of time I’ve been on the road to this point I have heard others talking about stabbings, various accidents, people getting killed, jobs being lost and so on. The types of things we humans seem to like to focus on at times. And oftentimes these conversations are followed by comments such as “some people……” or “I can’t believe it” or “this is terrible” or“who would do such a thing?”

How can we feel good about ourselves or life in general if we spend so much time and energy thinking about these types of events, which in reality likely comprise a fraction of space in the whole of our world? How can we create an awesome life when we spend so much time focussed on the negative?

So, I made a conscious decision prior to leaving on my trip to live with the belief that people come from a place of good, willingness to help and shared destiny. And that is the perspective that I decided to carry with me on my trip.

I am reading a fabulous book at the moment by Wayne Dyer called “The Power of Intention”. In it he discusses “Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change”. And I’ve found it to be very true in my own experience. Even though I have heard second-hand of a few negative news bits, I choose to believe that at the essence of human nature, we all have good and loving intentions. I also believe that when you come from that place, you will attract more of those sorts of people into your life. And have way more fun too!!!

In looking back over my past week, I have enjoyed some wonderful byproducts from this perspective that I’d like to share with you. Let’s call it The Wild Daisy Roving Reporter Good News Report…..”this just in, Wild Daisy reports that people are awesome!!”

• Last week I had a bit of frustration getting my new Blackberry activated and setup. It took several phone calls and a fair bit of time before I finally got an exuberantly helpful Telus associate on the other end of the line to help me out. I couldn’t be frustrated with her as she was in too good of a mood, telling me about her pending move out of her parents house into a place on her own. We had a great chat, she got me set up on my phone and then said she’d waive the usual activation fee for me, in her words, “just because she could”.  It was wonderful to save that money and it helped mitigate any further frustration when, only moments later, I turned on the phone to set it up and within seconds had set the user language to Spanish somehow. I had to head over to a Telus store for help getting un-Spanished and found another very helpful clerk there too.

• That same day I was visiting my friend Tracey, who helpfully drove me to the Telus store. I was initially going to just stop by her house for lunch and continue on to my campsite for the evening but my phone calamity kept delaying me. So, at one point Tracey suggested I stay for the night, which I did. Not only did I get to enjoy an extended visit but her and her friend Stacey treated me to dinner too.

• The next evening I camped out and met my new friends Doug, Bob and Nadine whom I’ve mentioned in an earlier post. They kindly invited me to share in their evening at the campsite after which Doug generously offered me up a lovely parking spot at his home while I needed to stay in town to await my new awning. In return I offered my “Park and Dine” special – in exchange for the parking spot, I cooked him dinner each night. The “Park and Dine” special is available to anyone across Canada so if you know of anyone with at least 27 feet of parking who also enjoys a good meal, let me know!

• Yesterday I had to take Miss Daisy in to have the awning replaced. While at the RV place, I asked the mechanic to investigate for a water leak as I’d noticed some dampness in one section of my RV while camping on the weekend. I was a little concerned it would turn into a big repair and unexpected expense. He tested my entire water intake system and reported that he couldn’t find a leak and suggested that the water might have resulted from too much pressure in the intake at the campground. When I went to pay my bill, he didn’t charge me for the time spent testing my water system, for which I’d fully expected to pay. That again was a nice surprise and a welcome kind gesture.

I do believe that when we change the way we look at things, we change the things that happen around us. It seemed to work for me this week. Try it out for yourself for at least a week – less tv, less spending time reading or talking about bad news and more time spent believing that life is good and that people are good. Oh, and more time spent stopping to admire the daisies of course…….And see what can happen.

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