Peace, Love, and Understanding

"As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity.
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside,
There's one thing I wanna know:
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding..."
(Lyrics: Nick Lowe)

It's interesting to see how often this world seems to shy away from loving other people - and yet our society's popular songs mention it regularly.

I read today about a man called Chad Swiatowicz who did the study about love songs for his master's thesis in sociology at the University of Florida. He analyzed the lyrics of the year's 10 most popular songs listed in Billboard's online archives for two eras, 2002-2005 and 1968-1971.

He found that 24 of the 40 songs in the modern era (60%) and half the songs of the classic era were devoted to the subject of love and relationships.

I find that - interesting. 

Getting Up, Fighting Back

I woke up feeling really low.

I wasn't operating at full strength, as I was recovering from the after effects of a cold. I still felt the stress of the previous day....

Yesterday was an absurdly busy time at work, made even more difficult due to tech problems on the computer network. I had persevered, worked through it, ploughed through a pile of work in the afternoon. This was followed by a busy evening of voluntary work, which I found challenging - I was aware of so much that was happening that I found it tough to cope with it all. I carried on, anyway... And I paid the price, later! I had tremendous difficulty in unwinding when I eventually got in, well into the evening. Sleep was elusive. I did manage to get a few hours, but I slept fitfully, with my night full of dreams that threatened to pull me back down. I was tired, and my joints ached as I got up this morning to face the day...

I am told that such negativity is made so much worse if you let it overwhelm you. So, today, I made a choice. I fought back.

• I prayed.
• I bent my Father's ear about how I felt about the last 24 hours, and then I put the previous day aside. Enough!
  
• I chose to start the next portion of the current day in a positive way. Out with the negativity!
  
• I took pains to find all the positives in my work, ditching my usual routine and in one case going the extra mile to contact a colleague to help them. And I received a real blessing in return!
  
• I posted a great bible quote that really helped me today on my Facebook wall. And started to spread some positivity...the 'likes' made me feel so much better as each rolled in...

Have you ever struggled in this way with negativity? Fight back!