Winning the lottery. A promotion. Paying off your mortgage. The healthy birth of child. A random act of kindness. Your favorite pair of jeans still fit. All good things.
On some days if might be as insignificant of as your car starting. Not oversleeping. The mail carrier actually gets your mail in the right box. No surprises on your bank statement. Your lunch order arrives exactly as you ordered. A good day is when nothing bad happens, but that’s rather low expectations for life.
When you put it into perspective, a good day is waking up and being able to move around freely. How many people don’t enjoy mobility? A lot. How many people wake up alone, sleeping outside, in an abandoned building or in a shelter? A lot. How many people wake up in the hospital or a care facility facing an illness or near the end of life? A lot. How many people wake up and their normal thought is fear? A lot.
A good day may be defined by your circumstances, your choosing or not, and the challenges you face. You’ve heard of first world problems. There’s no conditioner left in the bottle. It’s raining and you might get damp from the car to the office. Your favorite restaurant is booked for the time you want a reservation. You’re in a hurry but you’re told to change your password before logging in. Motherf@@@er! The horror.
At least, you don’t have to scrounge waste cans for food. Your kids aren’t dying. Bombs aren’t falling on your head. You work one job and have healthcare, not three jobs with no healthcare.
I woke up today and groused because the temperature was in the upper 30s for early October. It’s too early for this kind of weather. Next week it will be back in the 60s, so the ship will be upright again. Four days ago, I woke up thinking about my doctor appointment where I was going to learn whether I had cancer. Today, it was the weather. How quickly your mind re-focuses and re-sizes problems.
Hearing that I didn’t have cancer, thrilled me. Cancer is life-changing. Less than an hour after getting that news, I found out that a friend’s daughter had died of cancer, a battle she had been fighting for over a year. My news evaporated into sadness. The lost to his family is unfathomable.
As I stepped outside later this morning, the temperature was now in the low the 40s, still very cool, but the sun was out. The sun is good medicine. I sat at the traffic signal waiting for the green light. In a moment I thought about what was right in my world. No lottery or big promotion. I still pay on a mortgage. But I don’t have cancer. In fact, for the first time in awhile, I have no medical appointments planned, except for an annual physical. No one is suing me, yea. I’m still employed. There’s money in the bank and have a good credit score. There are no serious illnesses in the family, and everyone gets along no worse than before (major win!). New grandchildren this year. Prosperous students with good futures.
There are challenges, but they are manageable. Many of the things that bug me are within my grasp to work on. There are other things I cannot change, but I can work to influence them. It is not always about result, it is effort and commitment.
Life doesn’t stay the same. It may for awhile, but events and people have a way of bringing change to us. Life can seem very cruel and unfair. Why does this person get a disease and another person does not. The car in front of me is T-boned at an intersection but not me. I was born in the most prosperous country in the world (at least it used to be) while in other countries there is starvation, warlords and no future. Fate.
There are a lot of other things to write about. Occasionally, it is important to sit back and reflect, and count your blessings. Onward.
Ticket 2 Ride 