Today is the first day of the month of June - a month during which, for several reasons, I have committed to giving up complaining in it's entirety. Yep - no bitching, whining, kvetching or ranting for moi this month. Nada peep. Should be interesting.

Why am I doing this? Well, for one, complaining is a lousy way to behave and (to my mind) an ungrateful one, given the amazing gifts we are all given (and I consider myself to be among those who are vastly overcompensated for the value they give, in terms of raw ROI).

Secondly, there is the concept in many religious and spiritual philosophies that what you focus on becomes your reality. So by giving up my involvement in disrespectful, bleak and negative appraisals of my surroundings and experiences, I hope to change the nature of those interactions for the better and to steer my life onto even happier shoals than it currently basks.

Additionally, I am just plain incredibly curious to see how hard it actually will be for me not to complain. Admittedly, I am not the sunniest person on the block although I am far, far better than I used to be (my family has a long history of participating in Olympic League competitive martyrdom and it has taken me many years to get the worst of it out of my system). Initially, last year some time, I came up with the idea of having a year of no complaining (I was trying to think of attention-getting publicity stunts that would be fit for a spiritual development coach), which I immediately ditched as being completely freaking insane. However, a recent and unrelated challenge from an online compatriot to cease complaining for a week spurred me into rethinking my position. So I'm giving it a short trial, as it were, to see what happens.

Of course, as I pointed out to the challengers, I reserve the right to make statements of fact that may not be happy facts as long as these statements aren't made or intended soley for the purpose of bitching, such as saying "boy, it's hot" when it's 100 degrees outside. However, such statements as "I hate it when it's this hot" or "Holy cow! This heat sucks!" are clearly in foul territory and as such are verboten.

I'll keep you informed of my progress and we'll see what happens. If nothing else, it'll be worth the personal insight into my own character and mind even if I fail miserably (which, of course, would not actually be failing at all, given the valuable data the experiment itself provides).

Cheers!