What a difference a bit of sunshine and warmer weather does for our spirits, especially here in Orange.

I suspect a lot of people have been feeling like me lately, negotiating the doom and gloom of winter, battling the local business environment, feeling the effects of the drought, worrying about the talk of recession and generally looking for those little rays of sunshine in amongst it all.

Well, last weekend delivered a few wonderful gems for me.

My wife and I had some shopping to do, that reminds me, did I tell you we’re doing a NZ Cruise for our 50th Wedding Anniversary in a week or so? I’ve never had a passport before this.

Back to the shopping, we made some reasonable purchases from three local shops and at each one, I noticed they looked busy. I asked how their morning had been and each said Very Busy! Those are words that are music to the ears of any business owner. Just moving around town, it was pretty obvious how the mood and vibe in the street was just so different, clearly impacted mainly by the glorious weather. People were in summer clothing, many had a spring in their step and the whole scene presented such a different picture to what we’ve seen so often through winter.

On Sunday afternoon I had reason to drive down Sale Street and the new milk bar business near the Summer Centre entrance had wall to wall people lined up, all obviously keen for an old-fashioned ice cream or gelato treat. It was great to see!

Local parks were also littered with families enjoying the sunshine and generally having fun. If only we could bottle this weather and bring it out when we need it. It’s Monday as I write this, and someone told me this morning that 10 – 15 mls of rain are predicted tonight. If that came to pass it would just be some more icing on the cake this week. By now you’ll know if that rain came or not.

I guess what I’m trying to say with all this is, what a difference it makes when people are feeling good about things. It’s pretty obvious isn’t it, when we feel good about ourselves, the world looks so much better.

Let me therefore encourage you to think about how you can make someone’s day better today, tomorrow and often. Make it a practice to brighten someone else’s day. If you do, I guarantee your day will be brighter too.

Let me give you another piece of advice that I gave to myself after last weekend, advice you may like to consider as well. I foolishly took some time to read a whole lot of Facebook comments about various issues on the CWD Facebook page. What a mistake that was! Talk about a lot of sad, angry and unhappy people…it was so depressing! I’m not going to do that anymore. Far too much half glass empty stuff for my liking.

I’m going to make more of the half glass full stuff and focus on that. I’m always happier when I do.