Stop. Tell Me Something Wonderful

Why can't life be easy?
Why can’t life be easy?

Why is it that every big Christmas event for school, work and family has to happen on the same day?

Why can’t things just be easy?

My husband and I were busy trying to get everything ready for the Christmas party we were having that night for the tenants at our apartment building, Cameron Villas.  It so happened that the party fell on the same day that the kids had their Diversity Fair (and I had to go to the school at two different times since my kids are in different grades).  Between those trips my mom had physical therapy, after which I had to drive downtown to help set up the party, then return to pick up the kids and drop my son off for a movie night with his teacher at 3pm. The goal was that me and the kids would join my husband (happily, ha ha) at the apartments by 6pm.

Yes, Friday was one of those days.

My son woke up in a cranky mood, which quickly spread to my husband, especially since he opened the refrigerator and my glass jar of pickles crashed to the floor scattering shreds of glass and pickle juice everywhere.  Our truck broke down and had to be towed.  My daughter was crying because someone hurt her feelings and we were all running late.  And screaming at each other.

The radio was on and someone was speaking of the Newtown tragedy, where all those little kids were shot and killed.

Then it dawned on me:  this is all just stupid stuff and we’re yelling at each other over ridiculous things.  I mean, it’s not like we missed our airplane to Hawaii; we would be a little late to school.  It was a jar of pickles that broke, not a priceless family heirloom.  The truck died while parked, not while anyone was driving it and could have gotten hurt.

You never know what can happen, and did I really want my kids to start their day like this?  So mid-yell I turned to my kids and said:

“Stop.  Tell me something wonderful.”

“We have the Diversity Fair today,” said Rylee.  “And I get a movie night with my teacher,” said Henry.

Little Henry at the Diversity Fair
Little Henry at the Diversity Fair

“And we both get to stay up late to go to the Cameron Villas party!”  “And we can give to the Salvation Army bell guy so poor kids can have Christmas!” said my son.

Some of our tenants enjoying the Christmas party
Some of our tenants enjoying the Christmas party

From that moment on, our day changed.  Because even though we couldn’t prevent annoying thing like broken cars and stressed out mornings, we absolutely could decide how we were going to react to the situation.

My daughter with Elsa face paint
My daughter with Elsa face paint

At the tenant party my daughter had Elsa from Frozen painted on her face.  Elsa had it right:  Let it go!

How about you?  What is something wonderful in your life?  When you are feeling overwhelmed how do you change your mood?

Lisa 😉

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