[Last time](https://steemit.com/life/@whatamidoing/optimism-at-the-end-of-the-world-6-don-t-just-sit-there-do-something) I talked about how I went from basically a pessimistic loser to a version of myself that I could be happy with by creating meaning in my life and learning to make the most out of any situation.  I want to give one more example of just making good things happen out of thin air and tie this together with some of my previous posts.

![IMG_1086.JPG](https://steemitimages.com/DQmY5Kcuqqg9GVgrLhbvi5CrrJAGC93kvXCMpNyzrnGZusr/IMG_1086.JPG)


## The lemons
I was living in a big, loud, dirty city.  It was hot and sticky in the summer, some friends told me in the morning that they wanted to go to the beach a few hours later.  I had no plans so by 11 AM we were on our way.  I was excited, I love the ocean.  It can wipe away all the grime of city, all the static, and it sets my heart back to the default mode of peace and love.

So I got there and we spread out our blankets and got ready to go for a swim.  We walked up to the water and.....it was disgusting.  The new influx of tourists to the area had made a mess of the place, which had felt like paradise two years earlier.  Garbage was literally scattered everywhere.  We weren't going to just head home but our excitement had been drained.   We tried jamming on the instruments we had brought but we weren't feeling it at all.

The whole experience started to bring up all kinds of negative feelings.  Why does everything always go wrong?  The earth is being abused, people don't appreciate nature and just abuse her, no one does anything but shop and make the problem worse....the thoughts kept spiraling downward until they couldn't get any lower.  I wasn't being unrealistic, that was how it felt and how it was.


Had it been a few years earlier, back when I was full of negativity and always ready to play the victim, I probably would have gone home feeling like crap.  Hat mood might have painted my entire week and changed the course of my summer.  I had lived most of my life like that.  When you are on that road, things get, but they always get worse.

Instead, I thought back to all that Eckart Tolle and Alan Watts I had read a few years prior and the times I spent in nature when I knew a fairly constant sense of peace and harmony and I knew that what I had read was true.  I came back to the moment and accepted it as fully as I could.  I once again thought of the best version of myself and how he would act in that situation.


## The lemonade
My mind was already emptying itself.  Without much contemplating I went to a nearby convenience store and purchased some big plastic garbage bags.  I walked back and without saying a word to my friends I opened one up and started collecting garbage.

At first no one noticed.  Then after I had filled up my first bag, two of my friend came to help, probably out of boredom rather an anything else.  We made a game out of it, trying to see who could collect the most garbage in the shortest amount of time.  It was fun and good exercise.  

Before long, a middle aged man who had just finished his exercise came to help, and then a university age couple.  Another friend grabbed a guitar and came closer to us and started jamming and singing to us, free styling and making jokes at us to set the mood.  After two hours we had cleared a good chunk of the beach.

The mood had changed completely.  We headed to the showers and got ready to go home when the couple asked if we wanted to come back to their place for dinner.  It was a good day in the end and we even made some new friends.

You might be thinking that six people on one afternoon might not make much of a difference when the environment is in such a dire state, that companies are spilling gallons of sludge into our water every day, that it won't really matter.  But what if our actions inspired similar actions in the future.  What if one of those actions inspired a woman or man responsible for the environmental regulations on their companies factories?  What if it set the mood for a positive and productive summer for six individuals?  

Or so what if it was just one single day with no huge indirect impact on the world?  It was still an awesome day.


*What kind of lemonade have you made?*

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