Glass half full or empty?

No one ever accused me of being a glass half full sort of person. But yesterday I was reminded of the classic joke about the little girl who arrives home on her birthday to see a pile of horse manure someone put on her doorstep and exclaims, "Oh, look, somebody bought me a pony!" She's the embodiment of an optimistic attitude.

Three weeks after a huge windstorm (when I really thought a neighbor's tree was going to fall on my house), I was still picking up branches from a wooded area on my property when I came across these guano-covered bushes at the foot of a tree. My first thought was, "Oh boy, birds nested up there!" Delighted, I looked up and up, but you can see why I couldn't make out any nests.

It occurred to me that there are ways and ways of being a glass half full sort of person, at least if poop is involved.