Frustration

MJ and the horrible, no good, very bad day.

This is how I would title my Monday. Midafternoon, sitting at our second gas pump, also empty of gas, I turned to my 6- and 8-year old daughters and said, "Remember that book 'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day'?"

C, the 6-year old, "Mommy, you're having one of those days, aren't you?"

I'm grateful she gets me.

I should have smelled the stress of the day in the morning when THE totally dependable friend was unable to pick my daughter as we had planned. Now as the primary chauffeur I needed to take her (already an hour late) into art camp which then delayed the golf camp and then delayed the preschooler activities.

And then at work it was, of course, the day that we all really needed to meet to discuss a large project. I arrived just in the nick of time to begin the meeting but then had to remove myself gracefully after 15 minutes.

It was already time for me to begin again and drive to pick up all the campers and deposit them in their respective homes.

And all this driving created an immediate need for a gasoline.

And apparently hundreds of other cars also needed gasoline as I tried to squeak out the last drop of two pumps run dry.

Anyway, let me skip through the chapters of the horrible, no good, very bad day and simply say that all the small things in life that could go wrong, well, they did go wrong on Monday.

Of course this was all amplified by the absence of my husband and the huge help he is to calm me, to care for the kids, and to wrap his arms around the troubles of life.

Despite my low-grade frustration all day long, I found myself laughing internally as if asking the universe, "What are you sending me next?"

I started to play a game with it. I dared the Universe to show me just how spent I would feel after the next event.

And the more I made a game of it and the ridiculousness of it all, I found myself smiling, laughing, and making deliberate efforts to change my perspective on the day.

Life can be one big ball of frustration and rapid-fire challenge.

But truth is, we have each other (like I did with the friends who offered to watch my children longer), and we have our sense of perspective (skewed as that may be at times), and, a real gift to me, we even have laughter if we can allow ouselves to be open to it...

Unclenching fists

Relaxing shoulders

Finding the light-hearted in every situation.

This is my wish for you today.

xoxo, MJ

Grown-Up Goodness, Summer of HappinessMJ KocovskiJune 13, 2013goodness, grown-up goodness, hope, virtue, words

Celebrate the Normal: Inside Here

Happy May!! Wednesday is a celebration day around Pars Caeli. I have so loved seeing the images of normal life in your part of the world. Admittedly I check throughout the week via Twitter and Instagram to see and giggle and gawk. Through this process, some of you have really embraced a new approach to looking at your environment; some of you have even changed your perspective on your every day life. High five on all of those!!

This week I can say that Celebrate the Normal has been a reality check for me. The normal I expect every day - from warm hugs from my kids and good morning kisses from my husband to a job that makes me laugh and work hard to a warm home and spring beauty around me - each element has become so much a part of the background of my life. I somehow wake up acting like I deserve all this goodness or rather that I have done something to deserve the normal around me.

And, fact is.

It is all a gift.

My normal is a blessed one (yours is, too).

And I'm determined to move the background into my daily perspective. It's always time to celebrate.

I hope you'll consider offering up a prayer of gratitude for the normal around you. I hope, too, you'll join the party next week. Send photo by Monday midnight via Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #celebratethenormal.

Our new theme: