Have you ever had one of those days?
Of course, you have silly questions. We’ve all had those days.
You know when you wake groggy with sticky gunk in your eyes, and things just seem to go downhill from there? One of those kinds.
As I woke this particular morning, there was gunk in my eyes from having sanded cabinets until 9pm the night before. I make my morning coffee.
Ah, coffee! Coffee is my lifeblood, my personal caffeinated savior of the day, my liquid personality! I humbly bow at your feet…coffee!
I turn the espresso machine to “go fast, I need it now” and head off to get something done “quick while the coffee is making itself”. One thing always leads to another as I get distracted easily and by the time I’m back in the kitchen I catch the maker just in time before it flows over the mug…now to get it out of the little space without spilling it everywhere. I’m a thinker, so I drew a few sips out with a straw, and voila, no mess! Once I realize I can’t move that cup anywhere without spilling it all over my floor I concede to getting another mug to pour some off.
Things went south from there.
Everywhere. Somehow, there was coffee everywhere. By the time I was done, I was mopping it off the counter as well as down the front of the cabinet.
I stopped with the “oh, is it going to be one of those days?” I thought, handing that one moment all my power, feeling the sinking of despair “my whole day is going to be like this” in my body when Spirit stepped in.
“It’s not a day Anne, it’s a moment”.
She (yes, my Spirit speaks to me often in a female voice) was right, of course. In my mind, I began to look back at the series of events leading up to the coffee mess. I was distracted, I had 15 other things on my mind – I need to get some blogs written, oh my LinkedIn profile, man I hope this old washing machine doesn’t tear Christians comforter, I need to put the granola in the container, oh I should give some of it as a gift, I need to wash my hair and get going to the Christmas market, I hope the roads are good, Clarence is laying concrete for the shower today, and on and on and on. I was doing multiple things at once instead of bringing my head into the moment where my body was.
Feet and head space belong together, it’s just a good general rule.
I stopped to breathe…of course, she was right.
It’s so easy to get distracted and even easier to assume from that distracted place when one thing goes awry our whole day is going downhill. A moment is not the day, a day is not the week, and so on. Give yourself permission to have an event, without letting your ego-mind convince you all is lost. Take your power back. It’s ok, breathe, give that single event, that one thing, back to itself “there that was being what it was, and no more” and move on. Be present, and from that place of presence recognize your ability to shift your attitude and expect ease, which is what is usually available to us if we’re open to it.
Let yourself expect the best. It’s what we’re created for. When “things happen” then allow them to be that, but don’t give yourself over to them like they’re personal.
A moment in time is fleeting, and sometimes that’s a good thing, let it go.
Forever the journey, Anne