“Some Days” Oct 23rd.2015

“Some days, doing ‘the best we can” may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect–on any front–and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else.”  Fred Rodgers.

What is doing our best?  I get up some mornings, and I am not in the mood to be amazing.  I am not even in the mood to get up.  Can I seriously look myself in the mirror and say “Congratulations, you are doing the best you can.”  Nope.  I know I could be doing better, but here I am, putting one foot in front of the other. Ready for another day.  I do need to remind myself, however, that I am here, not merely to exist, but to do the best I can.

I started this blog, just to get some practice in writing.  I figured I would write every day during the summer.  As with most things, about three days out, I missed a day..then a week.  Now I knew this wouldn’t be a daily post.  Having met the community of TTOT, however, has given me a reason to write something, once a week.  For that I am grateful. There are days however, that I wish this blog page was titled “one thing of gratitude”…then I wouldn’t have to struggle to be the best.  I could write that my granddaughter was adorable, or that the sun was out, and I would quickly be done.  Sometimes, doing your best takes more effort than other days. I will work to do my best on this day.

9) I have to sit in seventh grade classes at a school, where I am an aide to a student with special needs.  He really is quite independent, and so I sit and listen quite often. Today was a writing lesson.  It wasn’t anything I didn’t know, but it was a reminder, that through challenges, we can be inspired.  I decided to do the assignment along with the students.  It is an assignment to do a paragraph describing someone you know.  Naturally, there are lots of expectations about figurative language, and verbs, and synonyms.  Starting out, my mind raced with ideas.  I haven’t yet written it, but I think it will be an interesting exercise.  We all know that physical exercise can be good for you and yet, I hate it.  I put it off.  I ignore it.  I hope it will just go away.  Isn’t mental exercise the same?  I think though, that working in a cooperative group makes everything so much better.  It can almost make it fun.  So for today, I will be grateful for the inspiration, if not the perspiration. I haven’t done the work yet, but at least I am inspired.

8) Tomorrow, I am to go to a training to be a volunteer at the “old globe theater”.  By being a volunteer, you get to see plays for free. It should be an interesting exercise. I use to love to go to plays, while my husband would much more enjoy going to a sporting event.  He set this up for us to do.  I would have said that I don’t have the time.  My life is too fragmented as it is.  Where will I get the time to do this?  I am grateful for his setting this up.  I don’t know if this will work out, but we will see where it goes.  I don’t want to commit to too much.  Hopefully. just getting my “feet wet” will be enough of an exercise, to see if I like doing this.

7) My daughter and her boyfriend are planning a job hunting trip. This means they will be taking my granddaughter far away.  There are people that think I will be very upset by this.  I am not.  I am so happy and grateful that they are busy leading their lives.  Some days, I will probably regret that I didn’t convince them to make it better here, but these days, I am so glad they are getting on with life, the way I did at one time.

6)  I am very grateful to TTOT for not only the encouragement of writing, but often just for the visual enjoyment of places I would never have seen.  I see the adventure out there waiting to happen.  For today’s visual enjoyment, I do have one picture.  It  is the day that the fog was hanging over the hill.  There is something about days like this.  It is the quiet.  You see the fog and hear the birds chirping and the rest of the world melts away.  I know there are coyotes up there, and when they howl it sends shivers through my soul.  But on this day, on this day, there was the quiet.  The sense that all was at peace in the world.

5)  Some days are more of a challenge than others. Have you ever just written something you thought was quite good, only to accidentally delete it?  Well, it just happened to me.  Much of the blog, gone.  Some days, I do my best just to get through. No, I will try and recover from this.  I will try and go on.  I am so grateful to computers.  I may lose a post, but it can be rewritten.  I was reminded this week about having to retype something in college, because of one mistake at the end of the page.  Yes, computers not only allow us to join in this community, they make it so much easier.  Some days, I need to remind myself that I can start again.  It might not be as good. It might be different.  It might even be better, if I bring my “best self”.  Well, this time it isn’t better, but it is done.

4) Some days, the words work well.  Today is not that some day.  Words are wandering around in my brain as if they were is a corn maze, trapped and trying to find the way out. I am grateful today that my new community is one of cooperation and not competition.  No one is here to criticize my spelling, my punctuation, my lack of verbs.  Just taking the time to read and encourage.  Thank you all for that.  I know that criticism is  suppose to make you better.  Sometimes it just keeps you from trying.

3) The family life continues on.  It seems like right now, everything has slowed to a snail’s pace.  A snail’s pace.  That is such an interesting term.  You know, I see snails that get into amazing places.  It reminds me of people talking about tortoises and how slow they are.  I had a tortoise stay with us for awhile, and that tortoise would be found in amazing places too.  I guess you don’t have to be fast to get somewhere, you just have to not get stepped on.   Some days you need to find a good place to hide so you won’t get stepped on.

2) I am thankful that I have gotten my walk in for most of the days this week.  It is getting dark earlier and earlier.  I don’t want to be out after dark and have to face the possibility of coming across a coyote.  It was a wonderful walk tonight.  The sun was setting.  The football stadium was being set up for the band tournament tomorrow, leaving the lights glowing in the sunset.  There was  music traveling through the air from the park across the valley.  It sounded like a fiesta. I could almost imagine the fun they were having. How could that not make your heart sing.  Some days it is just the little things, the quick moments.  And a safe trip home was an added benefit.

1.  Some days we have to ask if we have done enough.  Today is a day that I have done enough. For that I am thankful. It isn’t perfect.  It isn’t one of my best. It is done.