The Kindness of Speaking Up

"When you wake up every day, you have two choices.  You can either be positive or negative; an optimist or a pessimist.  I choose to be an optimist.  It's all a matter of perspective."
~ Harvey Mackay

Recently, I attended a half-day retreat with a large group of teenage girls.  The priest who led the retreat spoke about positivity, negativity and grace.  One mother spoke up -- despite her teenage daughter's not wanting her to speak (the look said it all).  But the mother had an important piece of information to share with both the girls and the adults in the room.  The mother said that she tells her daughter every day, "Today, you can choose happiness."  It is a concept that I have heard about and to which I subscribe, but the reminder is always important.  I was grateful that the mother spoke up and gave all of us -- teenager and much older alike -- the benefit of a very important message.