When life isn’t a bummer – not really
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It’s such a bummer when on a normal day when you have nothing else planned you get a phone call from your daughter asking if you can babysit your granddaughter for an hour or two and you, of course, say yes then proceed to spend that babysitting time just cuddling and listening to her coo and giggle. My day was a bummer.
It’s such a drag when a friend from out of town calls unexpectedly telling you they are in town and want to have lunch in an hour and you have to quit folding laundry to go and meet the friend and have a nice lunch with them spent catching up and sharing some laughs. Today was a major drag.
It’s such drudgery when you have a big grocery list and you have to go to the store and fill your cart with food and other goodies and it’s such a hassle to pack it all up, bring it home, and then, put it all away because that is time-consuming and time is money baby, and at the end of it all, you don’t even really think about the fact that you were able to pay for food for your family for the entire week without going into debt or scrimping on something. Today was filled with drudgery and hassles.
It’s bothersome and downright exasperating when, in the middle of the night, the dog or cat or maybe both want to cuddle with you in bed and they take up space and their fur gets in your face and one of them even snores, but they love you unconditionally so you make room and indulge in a little snuggling. Last night was bothersome and downright exasperating.
It’s such a pain, early in the morning, when you half-wake up and want to go back to that really great dream you were having but you peek at the clock and it’s just about time for the alarm to go off and you are still tired and don’t want to start your day just yet and then you remember it’s Saturday and you don’t have to get up and you can sleep in for another hour or two and you pull up the covers and go right back to that great dream. Last Saturday morning was a pain.
It’s irksome when the day is short but activities are long and you have to hop from one thing to the next because you are pulled in at least two but probably three or even four different directions and you have to leave one game early to make it to the last half of another scrimmage and all this is before the choir or band concert and you are tempted to skip something but then one kid might feel shorted so you go and find yourself enjoying the game and the scrimmage and the music, each at its own pace, and you realize these days are fleeting and there will come a time when you have an entire unencumbered day and evening and you will look back and remember these busy times with fondness. Many of my days are irksome.
It can be easy, or maybe better put, lazy, to live our days, our hours, our moments with blinders on to be focused on our present situation and find a change to our routine as an annoying disruption to the important ho-hum of our day. Or we embrace our normal routine as mundane without appreciating all it holds.
It’s easy to get into a tizzy or fret about a particular situation. I often do. But then when I convince myself to take the blinders off the big picture comes into view and I see the scope of it all and that realization is like a warm blanket unfolding over the top of me. There is much to fret about. Always will be. But there is much, much more to not fret about. I choose door number two.
Jill Pertler is an award-winning syndicated columnist, published playwright, author and member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Don’t miss a slice; follow the Slices of Life page on Facebook.
