I have been painting little pigs for a month. I just love their energy and enthusiasm.

They approach everything they do in the spirit of play.

They jump into things with gusto - no half measures!

They are friendly and companionable.

They are joiners - no wallflowers here! If you want to be a part of it, you have to get stuck in.

They seem to have so much personality, and most of all, that perky attitude.

As it does, life recently presented me with an opportunity to try out that perky attitude for myself.

I had tickets to an open air concert in the most beautiful winery. How wonderful…. Except for those ominous thunder clouds that appeared just as the stage had been set.

Now it was the middle of the Australian summer, admittedly in Melbourne, but still a little unusual even for us. The small country town nearest the winery had been cleaned out of rain ponchos by the ~~pessimists~~ people with greater foresight than I.

And since umbrellas are on the forbidden items list at outdoor concerts, I found myself presented with a rather literal opportunity to practice what I preach ( do you remember what I was saying the other day about dancing in the rain? Ha!)

Life is unpredictable. All we can really choose is our attitude. Or so I told myself from beneath my shroud of fetching pale blue plastic tablecloth (yes, luckily the country store still had some of those left!).

Once I had abandoned the thought of skulking off home to rail against the injustice of the weather I realised that the absurdity of all of us huddled in the rain, eating a gourmet meal totally without shelter (yes, the lemon butter salmon was very moist) did make for an unforgettable experience.

Choosing to stay outside and sing in the rain has a quite the bonding effect, apparently.

By the time Bryan Adams came on the rain had cleared and boy am I glad I didn’t miss that.

I’ll admit that having a costly and nonrefundable ticket in your hand does make it easier to summon up the positive attitude needed to make the most of things. But it was a useful reminder to me that when you choose your attitude you choose your experience.

It’s not what we do, its the way that we do it. The way the best version of ourselves would do things - that’s excellence.