Man am I sore! I jammed my thumb last night so I've been babying it all day I think the swelling is going down but it still hurts to try and move it too much. But the rest of my body is DODGEBALL SORE I mean my legs from crab walking to keep from falling; my back from curving front then left, then quickly right;my side - what move made my side sore and the left side of my left back knee? I don't know only dodge ball moves for 2 games in a row can do this to you. :)
So yesterday was my first official day of trying my work in progress - to be happy no matter the circumstance and to hope for myself happiness (the second is a tricky one because while I hope for myself and wish for things in my future, I must be happy with the 'now' reality and not attach to that future - whoa that's a hard one). So here is how I did.
Yesterday was an easy day to start physically because I felt good. Work was also easy - I spoke with customers, I figured out their issues and didn't deal with anyone irate so I didn't have to avoid getting wrapped up into their moods. My colleague,James, also gave me some good advice - when he went through puffler's he just told himself he was going to get the flu every 2 weeks and it helped instead of thinking about it as chemo.
My teacher, Varahi came to visit, which was also nice and keeping in with the making yesterday's happiness easier. At the end of the day I had planned to meet Jennifer M. for dinner and a movie at 6:30. I knew when I said 6:30 that I should have said 7, to deal with rush hour traffic but I didn't. So at 6:25 I was stuck in rush hour traffic. I was getting frustrated by people not driving the speed limit - my first challenge. I yelled "I am going to still be happy dammit!" Yep, that didn't make me happy, so I begrudgingly smiled - at first it was too fake, it didn't work I was still annoyed and impatient. I tried smiling again this time a real one, and this time, go figure, it actually helped. I immediately thought - don't do this at home, the worse thing you can do is tell Someone else to smile to make them feel better, you have to want to do it for it to actually work. Once I genuinely smiled I could feel my body calm down and not be frustrated. So score 1 for me for my first day.
The people I know - my friends, colleagues, family, acquaintance - they are so amazing. You know, driving on the street, these people may be in front of you cutting you off, braking and honking, driving like molasses, weaving in and out, they may flick you off and get angry at you. But these are the same people who may not know me but sent me a birthday card, gave money to someone in need, is taking care of a friend, is checking up on me to make sure I'm OK when they aren't, offering a shoulder to cry on or a sounding board, praying for me in centers and churches, making a person feel welcome, sending word of encouragement to a stranger, keeping a secret for a friend or an acquaintance... amazing, AMAZING people. I'm shocked by it sometimes, when I think about the people who have commented on even this blog to say kind words to someone they don't know. I don't think about that when I'm frustrated with someone, especially when I'm driving but the people I know are so amazing that the people you know must be too and some of those people may be in rush hour traffic with me driving like molasses.
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