“Wonderful thing…. No matter how filthy something gets, you can always clean it right up.” – “God,” as played by Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty
A few weeks ago, our family had one of “those” weeks. Oh, who am I kidding – we had one of those months. What’s worse, the month was in such a foul mood that it looked like it’d grow into one of those years. 3 out of 5 of us had sinus problems, 2 out of 4 vehicles broke completely down and took days to get fixed (not to mention $$$$), the dryer decided it didn’t like its job, and every bill that could come due did come due – without considering, for one moment, the unexpected extras.
Bills are so uncool that way.
There were other ridiculous things that happened but, for sanity’s sake I seemed to have blocked them out. Allow me to add that all of this came about as we’re planning our oldest daughter’s wedding… in two short months. Her dress? Well, it hasn’t come in yet.
Breathe.
During one of the crazy days, one of my girls pointed out that I never seemed to get stressed or “flip” out. I thought about it for a second and realized that, generally speaking, I don’t. Not over things that can be fixed, anyway. If there will be any flipping on my part, I’ll be when something or someone has been lost to me forever.
Then, well, I do give a flip.
But when you think about it, temporary situations – even those that pile up like building blocks – simply aren’t worth coming undone over. Why risk the damage it can do to your heart, your psyche, your good name – to say nothing of how ridiculous one looks mid-flip.
The next time something unsettling and stressful happens, ask yourself, “Is this a permanent loss or a temporary mess?” As the great quote at the top of the article says, messes can be cleaned up. However, if we’re busy coming unglued, stressing out, demanding, “WHY ME?!?!?” and so forth, the clean up will be put off until we’re worn out from our temper tantrum. By then, chances are that the problem has been compounded, feelings have been hurt, and time has been wasted.
It’s so much better to simply forgo the tantrum, keep your wits, and grab a mop.