I was walking in my neighborhood earlier this week, looking beyond fences, into fellow city dwellers’ versions of front lawns, keeping my eyes open for unexpected beauty or even things I might label as odd or quirky.

A block away, there’s an old stucco house with worn wooden stairs, audaciously painted red, and on each step is a pair of white plastic swans, planters.  Walking by this house always makes me smile.

In a window of the garden apartment of the building at the corner, there’s a three-colored window sign that reads BEWARE OF DANGEROUS DOG.  I don’t believe any dog lives in the building.  It seems funny to me that someone would try to avoid a break-in by hoping neighborhood burglars are readers, too.

So, I caught myself looking past a series of wrought iron posts and saw an assortment of small statues with one, conspicuously, turned over.

I recalled the legend about burying a statue of St. Joseph in one’s front yard to help the owner sell their property faster, but I didn’t see a FOR SALE sign anywhere nearby.

The wind, which has been exceptionally feisty lately, must have knocked the statue over.  From its size and shape, and considering the diversity of my neighborhood, the statue, face down in a small square of mud and gravel, could have been a garden gnome or some sort of  Guatemalan or Serbian saint.

When I first saw it, my immediate reaction was to right it, to return the two foot tall figurine to a standing position….but I couldn’t do this.

I was on the other side of a fence, and it was not really my concern.

I didn’t like thinking about not being able to fix this scene,  but after a few moments, I moved on.

Okay, so I couldn’t re-establish the statue to a standing position.  I couldn’t jump the fence.  I asked myself, What can I do?

I thought…I can go home and read or write. I can order a new battery for my phone headset (which I’ve been meaning to do for weeks).   I can clean my bathroom.  I can research meet-ups around my interests.  I can stretch and do my new Qigong exercises.  I can pay bills online.  I can read the Mueller report…

I noticed this shift in perspective. In recent weeks, I have gotten very discouraged by politics, by what seems to be an increasingly topsy-turvy world where facts have been replaced by messages, and I have felt powerless.

I decided to restrict how much cable news I was consuming.  I made plans to socialize with positive people.  I had dinner with a friend recently who shared her own decision to spend time with people doing positive things instead of getting together with people to gripe.

And here I was walking away from something I could not affect and choosing to ask myself what I could do instead.

Years ago, I encountered many people who were motivated by challenges.  They would be especially motivated by people telling them that they couldn’t do something.  They felt compelled to put in extra energy to prove naysayers WRONG.

They assumed that everybody was motivated the same way, by the desire to prove other people wrong.

I’m not wired that way.  I don’t want pursuit of any goal to be filled by such energy.  I don’t find proving others wrong to be motivation for me.

People often speak, with admiration, of having a “CAN-DO” attitude.  I understand this as elevating the approach of people who take on projects with plans to bludgeon and conquer all obstacles.

I fully recognize that attaining most any goal is not easy, but success is not always about having the greater force.

Often, objectives need to be broken down into more steps; more small actions that feel very do-able.  Or, sometimes, the first thing you need when tackling a new endeavor is confidence in being able to do something.  Anything.

I’m learning that feeling satisfied is usually not about forcing something to bend to your will, not in having a CAN-DO approach.  it’s understanding that you have choices, every moment, on where you want to place you energy and attention.

Thinking about what you can do instead of what you want to overcome is very liberating.

Having a “can do” attitude is no small thing.