My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and the Three Things Theory

Today was one of those Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Days. One of those days where everyone you know just wants to steer clear of you...for good reason. This was one of those days that started out terrible, and just got worse with every single thing that I tried to accomplish. Nothing worked.

My friend, Caroline, got a theory from a friend of hers that is.......when something bad happens, immediately think of three good things that came out of the situation. Sometimes its hard, especially if the situation is particularly bad. Nothing bad happened today that has any lasting effects, like a car wreck or being diagnosed with a disease (so, already thats one good thing! ha), but still its was just one of those days. So here are my three things:

1. I started a running program three days ago, and already, I'm hooked. It makes me feel better and clears my head. Day four is usually the point in my newly crafted exercise routines where I quit. However, because running makes me feel better, and my terrible mood could use a good distraction, I ran. Exercise plan derailment, averted.

2. I also can't move my head from side to side today because it hurts. I thought that a good long soak in my new tub could fix that situation. As I was filling my huge bathtub up with water, I started thinking about how its a little bit wasteful to use so much water when 884 million people in this world do not have access to clean water. And I just happened to be born in a country where I not only have access to clean water, but quite often take it for granted. It made me very thankful to be so privileged as to be one of the ones that does have clean water...and it sent me on an internet quest to find out how I can help a portion of the 884 million that don't.

3. It wasn't worse than it was. My bad day was only bad because of mood and minor inconveniences. It could have been so much worse...and I'm thankful that it wasn't.

The Three Things Theory...works. It focuses your attention away from the bad thing that has happened and makes us realize how good we really do have it. And I do have "it" really really good. For that, I am thankful.

Peace Like a Liver

If you grew up in church, at some point you sang "I've got peace like a river, I've got peace like a river." Inevitably, you would always stand next to some kid who sang (at the top of their lungs of course) "I've got peace like a liver." In the naive, blissful days of my childhood...who knew that livers didn't conjure up images of peace? Liver, River, it didn't matter what the word was because I took my peace for granted. I always always had peace, until I didn't have it anymore. Most days in adult life are a roller coaster that twists and turns and dips and dives between emotional highs and lows. In times of change, I might experience ten different cycles from high to low to high in the course of one day, sometimes over the same subject. And I have learned that those non-peaceful moments (the livers) really really make the river moments sweeter. And for that I am thankful.

Love

We are loved. Cheesy? Yes. But also true. We are all loved. Some of us by just one person and sometimes a whole lot of people love us. This weekend, at a memorial service, it struck me just how much this particular person was loved. I always wonder if the person that has moved on from this world knew just how much they were loved. I hope so. Because we all are. And I am thankful for love.

Scott

To my admired classmate Scott...

You were witty, brilliant, competitive, driven, making a difference in the world...you had an ease about you that let anyone know that you were a friend. I always admired you and thought about you from time to time. My thoughts included things like: my friend from high school, Scott, is doing cancer research...how awesome is that? Scott- he was friends with everyone and made being smart look cool. Something very hard to do in high school...where being cool is all about the car you drive and the clothes that you wear and hanging with the popular crowd. He was cool in a very different way...one that is lasting and one that changes people's lives.

I never told Scott any of this while he was alive...because we never want to tell people how we really feel about them because it makes us feel uncomfortable. Today, I am sad that Scott is no longer in this world. I am thankful for the bright light that he shone in all of our lives, I just wish that it was still shining. I am going to tell someone today exactly how I feel about them...

Lists

I love a list... mental check-lists, written down check-list...tomato, tomato. (Haha. Just reading tomato, tomato and not hearing it just sounds like tomato.) I love the checking-off of a list. It is absolute bliss to have an impossible list of things to do, and actually be able to check everything off of the list. Yesterday, I needed to go through my large pile of garage sale stuff and organize and price every single piece because I am having a garage sale next weekend. Before I did that, however, I needed to mow my yard because the weeds were so high that I was afraid people might get lost en route to said garage sale. And then my Dad called and he needed me to help clean out a storage room that we rented. On top of all of this, I have put my taxes off until the last minute. Fortunately, a very nice man volunteered to help me with my taxes and I still had a few pieces of information to take to him. So, mow yard, check! organize and price garage sale, check! throw boxes away in garage, check! clean out storage room, check! finish taxes, check! write a design trends article, check! And on top of all of that, I fit in a movie with my mom, check! All those checks make me feel so good and productive...like I now have a license to fill the rest of my day irresponsibly with no worries. Today, I am thankful for lists, and of course, the checks!

Goals for Summer Fun

It is hot today...86 degrees. Which makes me think SUMMER! Summer is my favorite. I love it more than fall. The sun shines all the time, you can stay outside listening to frogs until 9:00 and it just seems like people are geared up for fun. I work a lot and I feel panicky if I don't get some legitimate work done everyday. If I'm not careful, I realize, this summer will pass just like all previous summers.....mostly working and aimlessly drifting during free time until I realize I didn't do anything I wanted to do. So, I have made a list of goals of things I want to do this summer -OR- a list of things to do to ensure summer fun. So here goes...my summer fun list:

1. Digging for diamonds at Murfreesboro State Park. This is the part of the summer I plan to strike it rich. But, if I don't, it still sounds like a good time. Just kickin it, digging in the dirt like I am 8 years old again in the dirt pile in front of the house.

2. Grilling, lots of grilling. And inviting friends over to eat said grilled food. I hope they like grilled eggplant :)

3. Grow a vegetable garden. Especially tomatoes and squash and mint. Hello mojito.

4. Caves. Visit at least one cave. I live close to many caves and have never been to one.

5. Garage Sale Saturday. I plan to pick one saturday and get up at six like the hardcore garage salers and scavenge for treasures. This just sounds fun.

6. Bake Bread.

7. Have fresh flowers weekly. I just like it.

8. Make gumbo (this possibly could have been someone else's idea but I put it on here anyway. I can share my summer fun with others!)

9. Eat Hubcap Burger. Somewhere in Arkansas there is a restaurant that sells burgers the size of a hubcap. I've always wanted to do it. Must find the place first.

10. Write. More.

11. Spa Girls Weekend!!!

12. Small Town Festivals. Like the Altus Grape (Wine) Festival and the Mountain View Folk Festival and maybe I'll finish out the summer at the Iowa State fair.

13. Fishing. I used to love to go just for the quiet. My Dad and I would go on Sunday and I would fish for like 10 minutes and then read a book the rest of the time. Fishing or reading, I think I'll do it.

14. John Prine concert.

15. Baseball. Arkansas Travelers. But not in August. too hot!

16. Pedicures!

I'm officially excited about summer now. It feels good to dream. I'm thankful for the possibility of summer fun. I'll have to let you know how it goes! What's on your summer fun list?

Resilience

Today I am thankful for resilience....the ability to recover from adversity...the amazing phenomenon that this too shall pass. No one is safe from bad things happening. This has been illustrated quite clearly to me this week. Sometimes we are hurt by others and sometimes we hurt ourselves. Nevertheless, at the time, it seems like things are never going to be ok again. We cannot imagine, with the tools that we have at that moment, how we will move on. But we will. We always do.

There are some famous people that come to mind...Jackie Kennedy, Dana Reeves, Elizabeth Edwards, Abraham Lincoln, Jesus (to name a few) who have shown resilience... but it is the people that I know personally that have undergone their fair share of pain and have come out on the other side normal that give me hope... Kie who lost her precious baby this week, all the many people I know who have been through divorce, the person in my small group, my friend who lost her husband, the person that is worried that their business is in trouble, the precious girls that find themselves living in an orphanage in Guatemala, Jesus, and me. I have been through what I consider a fair amount of personal crisis over the past couple of years. Maybe you have too.

And what I know now is that our lives won't be the same after crisis...they will be better. Hard to imagine at the time of the pain. At the moment of the pain, we don't have the tools to deal with whatever crisis we are experiencing...we pick up those tools along the way. Those tools are picked up from a good friend that has some advice, from some stupid mistakes we figure out the wrong way to go, from a book we read, from love shown over a good lunch with someone who loves you, from our relationship with God, from the little millimeter our hearts expand after some time.

All of the crappy yucky things that have ever happened to me and others...gives me hope. Because I (and everyone else) have always managed to come out on the other side not just the same, but stronger. Yay resilience...thank God that we don't end up on a heap on the floor with ruined lives every time something bad happens to us...