I used to be the epitome of an optimist. My email is JOYFULeaglet because I thought of all the fruits of the Spirit, JOY was the one I had down pat. And I didn't understand how people could live their life otherwise.

Somewhere in there, something snapped. I don't think it was one thing, but more like how a hair elastic stretches so thin that eventually, it just breaks.

At any rate, I realized this weekend that I'd become a cynic. I've seen the signs of it before but I realized this weekend that it was here. I'm less inclined to see the silver linings. When I consider possible outcomes of a situation, I tend to think more about the negative possibilities.

I think the problem was my optimism. I guess I got let down enough that it turned into cynicism. It would have been better to be a realist. So that's my goal: to learn to be a realist.