There is this interesting phenomenon that I experience every once in a while. I’ll notice and celebrate being in a really good space, in a groove and flow, of enjoying being “in the right place at the right time,” and overall life is groovy. And then, bam! Assorted little craziness occurs that make me question if things really had calmed down, improved, shifted, etc. or if the hiccups and speed bumps are the norm and the smoothed-out path the exception. For now I’m going to go with the notion that right now life is evening out and generally good and that the mini-misfortunes, if one can call these that, are merely the occasional blip and not indicative of a general patter. I’m grateful for the depth of experiences I’ve had over the last few years that let me know how to handle the various things that come up with as much strength, grace, and resiliency as possible.
Today has been a good day for the most part. It deteriorated a bit toward the end of the day. After an hour and 40 minute drive home, eating dinner two hours later than usual, responding to a unfriendly communication from my landlord, discovering that something had been moved around in my kitchen and I have no idea who could have done it, I am more than ready to call it a day and begin again tomorrow. With all the weather delays and snow days this week it is hard to believe tomorrow is Friday, but I am ecstatic that it is. It has felt like a long and exhausting week, and quite honestly I’m a bit cranky.
Many days I can wax eloquent and poetic about the virtues of gratitude and walking through my days with a grateful heart. This is in part because many days I actually do offer focused attention on maintaining a sense of gratitude, compassion, generosity and other positive attributes as I go about my day to day life. And then there are those days, sort of like this one, when I’m tired and crispy and not feeling like dealing with the ocean of red tail lights I encounter on the Beltway at night when all I want to do is get home, sink on my sofa with my dinner tray on my lap and eat and relax. I don’t have the energy when I get home for dealing with the mini-dramas that I encountered when I got here this evening. I am fully aware, of course, that these really are the small stuff, not even first world problems but more like first world irritations. When I can put them all into that context I recognize that in the scheme of things life is still pretty good, I simply need to exhale and relax, knowing that Mama did indeed say there’ll be days like this. And so it is.
I am grateful to at this moment to be sitting in my bed about to retire for the evening. Richard Carlson had it write when he admonished us, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff…and it’s all small stuff.” When I think back over the course of the day it was all small stuff. And so as I prepare to take my rest I am letting go, as best I can, of the last vestiges of irritation from the micro-dramas that challenged my sense of equanimity at the end of the day. All shall be well and tomorrow is another day filled with new possibilities. And for that I am most definitely grateful.
