Select Entry- Gail Murray, Age 62

Welcome to our Optimistic Essay category. Here you will find the $1,000 winning contest essay, 5 finalist essays and 15 honorable mention essays and a growing list of hand-picked select essays that readers submitted during our "Why Are You Optimistic About the Future?" contest.

I am optimistic about my future because I trust my inner guidance. Through years of spiritual practice, experimentation, observation and awareness - I have learned how to make a really good day.

I am optimistic about THE future because I have learned that any person on earth can do this, anyone who wants to learn and practice and create. We are all different, and there is no one right road to attain this kind of inner confidence. There are many roads, and we each have guidance we can rely on to take us where we need to be.

I do not have control over the thoughts, beliefs, and actions of the other citizens of my planet, but I have learned to control and shape my own. This is not a rigid control, but a gentle sensing of the good, holding that in my thought, and letting the next logical steps and actions flow from that vision.

This works amazingly well. Creativity and relationships flourish, abundance flows, and I have the great feeling of guiding and riding a wave of pure life energy, a divine Source of well being that is there for all to discover.

I have learned to stop reacting to negative experiences and worldviews, and to proactively reach for a future that feels better. This is the essential spiritual skill of our time, and the more people learn it, the better things can be. I think there are many people quietly learning to work with their own thought, and I am grateful to be alive and a part of it all at this time.