Remember that Stevie Wonder song, sung by the Queen of Funk herself, Chaka Khan? It’s mostly about desire, but that “tell me something good” line comes back to me when things get too negative. A friend of mine had it on her answering machine. I loved that. (Yes, younger folk, we used to have our landlines hooked up to a machine.)

Anyway…back to the line in the song. You might catch me humming it from time to time. Life has enough negativity of its own. Highlighting it can be habit-forming.

But so can highlighting the positive.

I’ve shared this story by Joan Chittister before, but I’ll repeat it here. Talk about positivity…

“In a restaurant sat a group of young people, all of whom were physically challenged. One young woman (who was blind) traced the profile of the young person next to her with her fingertips. Then she tipped her head to one side and laughed a tiny little laugh of total delight. “You’re beautiful!” she said. “Just beautiful.”

I can be Debbie Downer as much as anyone, but it gets kinda old. I think we are what we repeatedly do. (Aristotle maybe?) We can change our habits. I’m not saying we need to kick up our heels and pretend all is okay when it’s not, but generally, we can choose what we dwell on.

So just for fun, tell me something good.