I’ve never had too much of a competitive spirit. Playful? Sure. But not necessarily competitive. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt to lose. Even when I know I had friends and family rooting for me from all over the place, it still stings a little more than I would like it to. A little more than I expected.
It is with a sad heart I share with you I did not win the costume contest I entered a couple of weeks ago. In spite of the support I had from all of you, my beloved WordPress family, the award went to someone else. When I heard the news, I found myself feeling something with which I am not familiar. Loss. From the ground up, it does not become me.
Almost simultaneously, I felt the wheels in my mind churning to find my silver lining. Sure enough, it came to me in droves a mere second or two later. You. The person reading this, standing by my side in this moment. You are my silver lining. Because I may not have won the prize, but I didn’t lose it alone. I lost it with the love and support of every single one of you, regardless of whether you’ve been by my side since I started sharing joy from the ground up in 2012 or you just hopped on the joy wagon today. That is my silver lining.
I know not everyone’s mind works like that. It isn’t everyone’s first reaction to something bad to try to find something good. But it wasn’t always the way my mind worked either. It’s taken making happiness a habit for me to realize that there is a silver lining in any situation; it’s just not always that easy to find.
It is a rare instance for me to disagree with a famously brilliant person, but today that is exactly what I’m going to do. “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing,” said legendary Packer coach Vince Lombardi. As it pertains to the Packers, he’s right. But in every other aspect of life, I can’t say it’s true that winning is the only thing. Especially when losing isn’t half bad.
Wiley's Wisdom 