Wreckin' Me Buzz

Hello. I have a rant today. It's an unusual one, because mainly when people rant it is because they are depressed. Well this is the opposite. I'm ranting because I'm not depressed. I want everyone to stop bringing me down and sapping all my happy buzz, just because it's flipping raining.

If you ride a motorcycle and keep arriving to work and home again soaked to the skin - ok, you're allowed to let the rain get you a bit blue (not literally I hope!) for a few mins per day.

Similarly, those who walk to work - bless you, I hope you have nice warm socks waiting for you at your destination.

For the rest of us who take public transport and drive sheltered vehicles, please STOP using the weather as an excuse to be a moaning old bag. Equally, unless your house is being taken off you by your lending institution, I don't want to hear any more complaints about the downturn.

I have met people whose homes have been flooded by the recent rain. And what is happening? They are rolling up their sleeves and getting on with it. Saying things like "It could be worse," and, "I'm luckier than some, you know."

Fair play to them. They're not curling up in a damn corner, muttering to themselves.

I have also met people who have no choice but to sell their property at the moment, the worst time to be selling in any Irish climate in the last 10 years. People who did not greedily buy up somewhere great in the hope that they would cash in on the Celtic Tiger a few years down the line. These are people who bought somewhere nice, modest and affordable as soon as they could. And now they have to sell up and go back to renting. Thankfully the number of people I know in this situation is still low, but they still have a damn smile on their face. Their outlook is something along the lines of, "Wasn't I lucky to be able to afford it in the first place?"

It just makes you want to reach out and hug them. I do, quite frequently.

Solidarity would be a lovely (alternative!) side effect to rain and pennypinching, rather than bitterness and grumpiness. When bad things happen in other countries, everybody clubs together to get through it. Teamwork! It's inspiring and to be quite frank, humbles me. Look at countries with real disasters - serious floods, earthquakes, even what happened in London on the Tube not so long ago - everyone discovered an inner strength that did not allow them to bring themselves down. We all know someone who was living in London in July 2005, we all spent a few frantic hours waiting to hear that they were ok. During my own relief I looked on in wonder at how the devastation brought the city and country together.

A few damp days, the climate changing and the economy slowing is making everybody miserable. Perhaps I shouldn't be comparing Irish mild flooding to those in SE Asia but I hope anyone reading can see that I am merely trying to put our own little dark cloud into some perspective. There is still so much to be thankful and happy for. Please put a smile back on Ireland's face!

And if you must continue to moan, please stop finding me - the chirpy one at the back - and taking all my smiles for yourself. That's just mean. I'll tell you how to do it yourself:
- Write down 5 things that made you smile in the last fortnight
- Write down another 5 things that you are looking forward to between now and Christmas
- Go away and think about those 5 things and start getting excited about preparing for them
- Call someone who is going to share one of these things and get excited about it with them
- Arrange to meet for said preparation, or just to talk about it in person over your favourite coffee/tipple of choice
- Now start sharing those smiles will you please? They're meant to be contagious...

HAPPY
happy
JOY
joy