Today's Path: Frustration

What a day. Here I am, DETERMINED to be in a good mood... or at least a decent one, and it's a challenge.  No, there's nothing in particular wrong... just one of those "hassled" days. You know what I mean? The cold gloomy day isn't helping, but I honestly don't think that's much of a factor.  (Hearing that our high today was 20+ degrees below our average certainly didn't help though!)

Each little thing seemed to be more difficult than it should have been, or at least, more complicated or took longer. Again, nothing big... but for that to happen over and over and over today.... UGH.

Some things were under my control, such as the laundry. (I chose to wash a tiny load of what was needed, leaving the rest. (No, I don't know why. The machine does the work - not like I had to beat it over the rocks...). Most of it was not something I could control, such as other people's expectations - strangers even, and even the cat was whining. I found  myself feeling way more annoyed than I should at the Kentucky Legislature and the US Congress... well, perhaps I "should" feel annoyed at Congress. I think it's time we pull out the "Do Nothing Party" label from sometime in the 1800s and get it tattooed across the forehead of almost everyone in Washington, DC. It seems the only thing they can agree on is putting themselves ahead of the American people. grrr... see? not happy.

So, then I sat here a bit when my plans didn't work out considering what to do. My plan was to offer to help my son with something, not that he asked. I just decided he needed help. (Moms do that sort of thing.) But then when I called him, he says he's taken care of it. Thanks, but no thanks. So I was left with some unexpected free time... which was spent pondering why it bothered me that I didn't have to spend time and money rescuing him, and thinking about various other moments of the day.

You know what I realized? That it wasn't such a bad day. Along the way, my thought processes were about as scrambled as the weather lately. I was annoyed standing in line to check out at the grocery store today. Although I went in to pick up a can of V-8 juice for the base of my vegetable beef soup, I ended up spending over $100. Expensive soup? No... seems it was even on sale.

Thinking about the annoyances of my day, it struck me that I am truly blessed. True, we had snow off and on all day but it's just snowing, not doing anything. It could be like sections of the mid-west that have had horrible deep snows recently. I have heat, a comfortable home, an overflowing pantry and groceries in the car. (I brought in the milk and freezer things, but left everything else in the car for someone else to bring in.) Sure, this damp cold air is doing a number on my arthritic joints, neuropathy, and fibromyalgia - but I can walk. I can move, can do things, even if slowly, and thanks to dialysis, have nice cleaned out blood for a few hours. For that matter, I'm still alive - that alone is something not to be taken for granted.

Going to the grocery store was very tiring. Yes, I spent over $100 even though my pantry is full... but  I did so because some of the things we often want were on sale. Not fantastic prices, but good enough I wanted to stock up. So, for all the bags, it was a lot of just a few things. See? While I was thinking of that stop as just another example of how something simple turned into a big, tiring deal... I should've been thinking about how lucky I was to have saved $50 on things we'd buy anyway.

I spent some "WWJD" time just before writing this... "What would Jesus do?" though it was really more, What DID Jesus do? and I thought about how annoying it probably was to encounter people that mistreated others, that put themselves above others, government hassles... Suddenly, I realized that not only would Jesus understand how I felt, He probably dealt with it a lot more often. The more things change, the more they stay the same? There have always been hassles, dumb people, and people that abuse others... if not physically, than in other ways. But that is what was put on my heart. "Just don't worry about it. Things have been worse and others have had much more to deal with than you ever even considered." It's true.

Well, it'd be such a wonderful witness if I could just say, "Well, I prayed and now feel so wonderful and overjoyed!" But that would be lying. Nope, not wonderful. But while the annoyance level is only slightly diminished, I realize that it's just not a big deal. You know what? I'm going to get some sleep. 6:30 pm - that's bedtime, right? I considered putting the TV on, but somehow, I think adding noise to the equation would put me over the edge. . So, I'm going to escape into sleep. Today's journey was one of survival, not insight. But survived it, I did.

(by the way - did you read my post this morning? "Just Had to Share This With You" It was something neat I read and wanted to share with you. I hope it touched you as much as it did me.  If you missed it, go back and read it. It's much more encouraging that this post! LOL)