Happy Van day!

Well today is a special day! Today is the day we see the new shiny green van in the light for the first time! We have had the van nearly a week now but as the days are closing in we get up in the dark, and come home in the dark, and so far have not seen it in daylight, not even for the test drive.

Life is a bit like that sometimes. We have to take a stab in the dark and trust our instincts not to let us down. In the light we can see all the little scratches and dinks, the scuffs on the dash board and the grubby mark left by a discarded carton in the back. In the dark however everything looks shiny and bright. We could be irritated by the defects, but actually it is a reflection of a job well done, the van is carrying the marks of a life lived, and the happy times inside of it.

We could all look in the mirror and see lines, wrinkles and imperfections, but maybe we are seing the wrong things because we are looking for the wrong things. I call my laughter lines (don't you just hate that expression) "twinkles" because they are a visual record of all the love and laughs I am having in my new life. I look forward to getting more! Grey hairs: a sign of all the fun I have been having! (I have not got many, so I had better step up the fun). My scars, and they are pretty hideous, are a reminder that I am still here.

There are worse things in life than a few bumps and scrapes, as these are the very things that shape and define us. It is not the looking that defines us, but the eyes we are looking out of, and into!

Today's homework: Go and look in a mirror. It is hard I know! Look in that mirror and find one tiny thing that you like, one freckle that you got on a beach in the summer.. one scar where you fell on something in a field with your mates.. one pair of eyes that look out onto a bright shiny world, shiny with that pot of gold you are carrying.

Find that tiny thing, and nurture it. You will find that by nurturing and recognising the positive memories attached to that precious thing, that the positivity will spread, and you will a tiny bit at a time start feeling brighter. The best bit of all is that it is catching: Spread a little joy: find one thing x