You know those kinds of days. Everything possible seems to be going wrong as you forget one thing after another, and as each special "surprise" responsibility gets thrown on you, you think, "not one more thing!" You barely scratch the surface of your to-do list, that looms over your overwhelmingly busy life. You spill your (hot cocoa/coffee🤣) all over yourself. You end up yelling at your kids. Oh. And of course, it's raining. As the thunder booms and lightning crashes, the drops of rain that mercilessly cascade down onto you blend in with the tears that are slowly, silently streaming down your face.
Now let's back up for a second. And maybe look it at the fictional day... in another way!
There is a 75% chance of rain today. You wrote "register kids for camp," "take a meal to the Jensens," "pay utility bill" and "send birthday call to Mom" on a notepad. You were not able to do any of the things you wanted to do. You get a lot of things to do at work. You say, "Stop it" in a relatively loud voice to your child. It rains. There is thunder and lightning.
What's the difference between the two paragraphs?
Well, for starters, I hope it's obvious that the second one is much more boring. Disclaimer -- I'm a teenager! I don't have kids, work in corporate, drink coffee, drive, lol, or live the average American adult life, so hey, if the above situation is inaccurate, be sure to give me some better "worst adult bad day" ideas. But I like to think that I can write.
And I'm sure the first passage would get a much better grade than the second one in my Honors English class.
But...why?
Because I dramatized it.
No, it's not the vocab words or powerful, vivid verbs (although I did use them to ramp this situation up), it's the way I looked at this situation.
(Stay with me, y'all. Coming up with some gold soon. ;) )
As boring as the second one is, it is true. Every sentence is something everyone would, could agree on. Nothing is subjective (except for the yelling comment I suppose) and most can be proven.
What does this prove?
Circumstances are neutral.
Your day is neutral.
So is your life.
There is no such thing as a "bad day." Maybe that's just how you chose to market it.
Now, of course, there's nothing wrong with having thoughts about these circumstances. Because all the facts - that really is robotic, Siri-esque.
But it's important to know that you have the power to choose whether to put a positive or negative spin on things, through your thoughts. Which create your feelings, which create your reality, which sum up your life. (This is not my original idea or model, head over here to learn more!)
Alright, now with a new mood and outlook, let's imagine the same day, again, for the final way.
This is a crazy life. But it's a good crazy, the kind that makes you smile at all you're getting to experience and go through in this crazy life.
You didn't register the kids, or bring the meal, or pay the bill, or get the card. But none of this affects your worth, and doing anything or not doing anything never will. The beautiful thing about this life is that tomorrow, there will be a sunrise. A beautiful new day -- a fresh start.
It will be okay.
As you drive home in your car - seriously, you have a car? So amazing. You're perfectly dry, you're in a car, ugh, love it. And it starts to rain.
You see some people sighing, rolling their eyes in their windows, maybe turning the windshield wipers on, and putting on a gloomy attitude to match the rain.
But who says rain is bad? Who says rain is gloomy, sad, depressing, or drab?
What if it's beautiful?
What if as you hear each pitter-patter drop of water, you see how it will fall on the ground, fill the lakes, rivers, streams, and will breathe into the plants and waters new life? And if you pause. And look up and think, "God created all of this."
You smile and say no one in particular, "the sky is having a party!" and crack up.
Because, my friends, rain is just confetti from the sky.
