Over the past two weeks I have experienced several "bad days", which led me to an Eeyore state of mind - Eeyore being the gloomy donkey from the "Winnie the Pooh" cast of characters. Not realizing I had slipped from positivity to negativity, it hit me this morning when I read about someone else who truly had a bad day - a bad day much worse than my relatively-minor bad days. In fact, I had begun mentally reciting the words from Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" song like a mantra:
Sometimes the system goes on the blink
And the whole thing turns out wrong
You might not make it back and you know
That you could be well oh that strong
And I'm not wrong
So where is the passion when you need it the most
Oh you and I
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost
Cause you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
You've seen what you like
And how does it feel for one more time
You had a bad day
You had a bad day
(Blogger's note: I love this song. Powter's lyrics, while perhaps on the morose edge, become almost upbeat with his brilliant use of the 6/8 time signature and its natural cheery feel.)
I understand that gloom and doom can descend upon a person like a natural gas leak....silent and very deadly. My "natural gas leak" was certainly not deadly but definitely disruptive to my psyche and zen - or lack thereof. Even though an angel stepped forward and provided a "loaner" cell phone ( a Blackberry, no less - smarter than I), I was still far from restored mentally and psychologically, a condition I am unaccustomed to. As my to-do list became longer and longer and my "ta-da-done" list had nary a task on it, I thought of the bootstraps my parents would have referred to and reached down for mine.
This morning, the antidote to my Eeyore-ness appeared in the form of a newspaper article from Door County Daily News.com, an online news publication from Door County, Wisconsin. It seems that yesterday, a Door County farmer really did have a bad day, when not one but TWO of his liquid manure trucks overturned in separate accidents, spilling out their contents in unintended places. Not only did was he faced with an environmental nightmare, but he lost two trailer rigs and one tractor. Suddenly, my bad days seemed more like cloudy days than confidence-busting, end-of-the-world-as-I-knew-it days.
Eeyore has returned to his place as a story-book character and I have my perspective back. Let us all pray that the farmer's good days return quickly.
Ancora imparo
