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I actually did learn another trick from the experience I wrote about on July 23.  It was how to turn my boat around, or rather, how to stop thinking angry thoughts.  The solution was to have a phrase to say to myself -- some solution that I had worked out during my other agonizing that could be summarized in a phrase and then wouldn't need to be reworked out in my mind again and again!  For me, in that case, it was, "I have other friends.  There are lots of people in the world."  Also, "I have a really good life."

This last phrase was so similar to a phrase that a friend of mine says often that I realized, other people do this, too!!  Her phrase is really good because it relates to just about anything.  She says, "It's all good."

What I love about her phrase is that it reminds us that God has made everything good and even when things don't seem good, He turns them around and makes them into good.  He has that power and He has that love for us to use it.  It also reminds me to be grateful for the good in the people and things around me.

The other day, I found myself getting irritated at some drivers who were going below the speed limit and slowing me down.  As in any situation, when I let myself think about it, I found I could make compelling, biting arguments for my rightness and their wrongness.

Here lie dragons.  I turned my boat around quickly this time.

"It's all good," I told myself.

. . . and I found that it was.