But every now and then, just like everyone else, I have a bad day. And I've had a few of those recently. One day comes to mind from just a month or so ago... We were up volunteering at a trail run a good 45 minutes away from home when I locked our keys in our car. Minutes later I ripped my jeans right through the butt. Another day I was slammed at work only to be criticized pretty strongly by a parent about my therapy method. And then yesterday, I woke up for about the 13th day in a row with a bad cold, that turned into a horrible cold by the day's end... at which point I spent half an hour wandering around multiple unfamiliar buildings, trying to find my husband because his phone had died and I had missed his email telling me so.
A few days ago I heard this quote, and in the midst of my latest bad day, it kept running through my mind.
“Anyone
who imagines that bliss..is normal is going to waste a lot
of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. [The
fact is] most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow
up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of
mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. …Life
is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust,
cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas
and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”(Jenkins Lloyd Jones, as quoted by President Gordon B. Hinckley)
Often when I do have a bad day, I reach a point where the tiniest of set-backs instantly frustrate me. Even knowing full well that I'm being ridiculous, that anger can overcome me if I let it. Yesterday it was the blender that just wouldn't blend like I wanted it to (I know, I wasn't kidding when I said "ridiculous"). Somehow I am consumed with negative and in every situation there's something (if not 10 somethings) to add to the list of why I'm having a bad day. I'm blinded by the smoke.
Perhaps that is why in her infinite wisdom, my mom used to sense a bad day, and force me to name off all the good things that happened. I hated it. I told her nothing even remotely good happened. But it did, I just wasn't looking for it. Or wanting to look for it.
As hard as it is though, and as much as I fight it in the moment, I'm convinced that seeking and recognizing the good (along with chocolate, my favorite TV show, and lots of laughter) is the only cure to a horrible day. So while I'm home coughing out my lungs today, I'm trying desperately to seek the good (see the first paragraph of this post). The smoke is so much easier to handle when you know its sandwiched by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. And my life definitely has plenty of that.
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