days – weeks – months – years – decades – centuries

We all have those small frustrations that make each day challenging.  It is often easier to deal emotionally with things like car accidents, stitches and broken bones than the little things that happen every day.  Why?  Because with the big things we are expected to feel stressed.   It is acceptable to be late to work because you had an engine fire.  It is acceptable to miss an appointment due to a medical emergency.

It is, however, the little things that often make “bad days”.  Why?  Because we let them.

You get out of the shower and get dressed for work.  Your hair has a mind of its own.  It will go any direction except the one you want.  It may only go one direction, straight up.  These are called bad hair days.  We often feel self-conscious about ourselves when this happens.  Why?  Most people have hair and I bet theirs can be just as troublesome as yours.  Make the best of it.  Put a bow at the end of the tallest straight up hair and pretend to be a Who.  Spray some fun colors in it and say you got your head stuck in a rainbow.  Tell people you are trying out a new hairstyle.

It is time to leave for work, a meeting, church, an interview or whatever.  You need to be on time.  Where are your keys?  You know that you put them in their usual place but they are not there.  If your keys are like mine, they like to play hide and seek.  I have found them in some of the most unusual places: the refrigerator, the dryer, the ignition.  Where are your keys’ favorite place to hide?

I often lose my brain.  Not the one in my head; it’s in a mayonnaise jar under my bed for safe keeping.  It’s my iPhone.  If it is not on my iPhone I will not remember it since I have the memory of a dead gnat.  Since it goes where I do it can be anywhere.  My 8-year-old often rolls her eyes at me and says, “Mom!  You’ve lost your brain again?!”  I usually find it fairly quickly, especially since I’ve started keeping it in my pocket.  I did however spend two hours looking for it the other day only to find it in my pocket . . . .  My 8-year-old only rolled her eyes at me and shook her head.

I have found that making fun of myself and these everyday occurrences keeps them from negatively affecting my whole day.  I often laugh at the ridiculousness of these instances.  People will not judge you badly just because your hair looks different, you locked your keys in the car and yourself out of the house or cannot find your glasses because they are on your face.  They do these things too.  Shared experiences and laughter make good friends.

I think I will end today’s blog with a very short story that I wrote many years ago.  It’s titled, “Where’s My Batteries?”

“Mommy! . . . Mommy!”

Through my sleep fogged brain I hear my 6-year-old calling me.  I struggle to sit up in bed and swing my feet over the side.  I look groggily at the clock . . . 4:17 a.m.

“Mommy!”

“I’m coming.”

I flip the light switch in the hall way.  The power has gone out again.  I look out the window and see that the whole neighborhood is dark.  I hear my 6-year-old coming out of the bathroom, “Mom.  I’m afraid of the dark.”

“I know sweet heart just go climb back into bed.  I’m going to the kitchen for the flashlight.  OUCH!!”  Two tiny red lights flash and a small digital siren starts.  I swear I’m going to throw those metal cars away one of these days!

I hear foot steps behind me.  “Mommy, you found my fire engine!”

“Yes dear . . . with my foot.”

“Are you okay?”

“I really need you to put them away when you are done playing with them.”

“Okay mommy.”

I carefully weave my way through the family room; a minefield of metal cars, plastic track, wooden blocks, Legos, books, and a large sleeping dog.  Finally . . . the kitchen.  I open the cabinet over the dishwasher and reach for the flash light.  It’s gone.  In frustration I wonder if I moved it, my husband borrowed it, or the children found it.  “Sweetie, do you know what happened to the flashlight?”

“Yes Mommy, you put it on the refrigerator when you took it away from the baby.”

Walking to the refrigerator I stub my little toe on an out-of-place stool. “OUCH!”  I wonder if anything will ever stay where it belongs.  Maybe things wander around after I go to bed.  I reach up on top of the refrigerator and wrap my fingers around the flash light.  I take it down and push the button to turn it on . . . nothing . . . . I shake the flashlight. . . . No batteries.

“Sweetie, do you know what happened to the batteries that were in the flash light?”

“No Mommy, the baby had already lost them before you took the flash light away from him.”

<SIGH>

It is little things like this that make up daily life.  The key is to focus on the positive.  The question is, ‘What did you hear when reading this story?’