My Day As A Sappy Happy Smiling Chiquita
By all means use sometimes to be alone.
Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear.
7:00 a.m. My day of refraining from negativity starts like this: I wake to a quiet, empty house. Big J is at work and the little ones are at grandma’s. Ah, yes, I revel in the silence. I take my usual few moments of quiet reflection, filling my well of patience, peace, love and energy. By the time I am sitting with my morning coffee, I am bursting with positivity.
10:00 a.m. As I get ready, I see a glimpse of myself in the mirror and before I have a chance to mumble anything about my complexion or weight or hair, I spurt out, “I love you, Self.” And my self smiles back.
11:00 a.m. Off to work I go. Fortunately part of of my job today is to smile and say nice things, so I am finding it rather easy to keep my positive groove on. At one point of the day, I pass by an older gentleman, say hello and ask how he is doing. “I’ve been better,” he mumbled. “How are you?” I smile and say, “I’ve never been better.”
7:15 p.m. I’m on my way home, and as I head into my twelfth hour of unwavering bliss, I start to feel a bit tired and hungry. Big J is grilling chicken and I snap at him about the kids eating dinner too late. Eek. Strike One.
7:25 p.m. I notice one of our backyard critters (I’m guessing the chipmunk) has eaten the tops of my newly sprouted sunflowers. “Little son of a bi—” I catch myself from saying it out loud, but shame on me, I was definitely thinking it. Oh, damn, Strike Two.
9:30 p.m. The girls are in bed and I am out on the porch, snuggled up next to J on our porch swing. He’s telling me a story about some people we know, people who apparently have a very different approach to parenting than we do, and I comment that I am very surprised how careless they are as parents. Oops, totally forgot the ‘thou shalt not judge’ rule. Sigh. Strike Three.
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Hey, I’m patting myself on the back anyway, three strikes isn’t too bad, in my opinion. I know I get cranky when I push myself all day without taking much of a break, and I probably would do well to take a few moments to recharge and get grounded instead of taking it out on my family. Oh, well, back to my pessimistic, grumpy ways. Just kidding. Still feeling very upbeat, actually, but don’t worry, not in a perky Pollyanna-living-in-a-rose-colored-bubble kind of way. And I’m not keeping score anymore, but I do find that I am a bit more aware of what comes out of my mouth or into my thoughts. And today, mid-afternoon when my mood started to shift, I grabbed a book and slipped away to my favorite reading nook — just a few minutes in the fresh air, the sun warming my skin and I felt immediately revived.
It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.
June 13th, 2007 at 7:41 am
I love the approach to life you are taking these days. So wise. Don’t judge yourself for the small incidents of failure. Failure is inevitable. It is just the trying that matters.
I love all the wise quotes you post. I’ll be back!
June 13th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Of course, no one is perfect, but a day without negativity sounds like an excellent idea! And I think it’s great that you decided to do that on a day that you had regular things going on (like work, ect). Hmmmm….maybe I’ll try this out today too. ;)
ps.
I’m glad to hear that you have a job that makes it easy to be postive. I have a similar sort of job. I think we are very lucky in this way. :)
June 13th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Love this photo. The focus on the mug is perfect. Wonderful lighting! Looks like a great ‘environment’ to do some reading.
June 13th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Melanie, as always, you are an inspiration to me. You did an amazing job and should be WAY proud of your accomplishment. I am inspired to do the same . . . and to approach a day from that angle. Thanks, toots!
June 13th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
wow…i really need to give this a try. and for the record - i would say my first few days would
consist of at least 100 strikes. especially if i caught glimpses of myself in the mirror.
this is fun, thanks for sharing….
June 14th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Such and honest and poignant post! We all need reminding from time to time:D Thanks for the heads up!
June 14th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Melanie: I totally need to do this. Hubby and I were discussing this very thing last night. He said he needs to stop complaining so much at work. So I told him that he really should try for one day to just NOT complain, to watch what he says before he says it. I had remembered your experiment. He said he thinks it’s a GREAT idea!
June 14th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
I am so inspired by you. This approach is so needed (have been in such a funk of late). Positivity, baby.
June 15th, 2007 at 10:54 am
hi
there!
You have hit the nail on the head… the law of attraction. And you did a much better job than that overrated sellout, The Secret. (only my opinion…about it being a sell-out)
Still smiling from seeing you all, AND that you are posting again! Great photo, by the way… :-) :-) :-)