It's All Relative

What I really want to blog about is the ridiculously terrible 36 hours of travel my husband and I recently survived. (With two small children in tow!)  But I won't. I am going to resist the urge to regurgitate a slew of unneccessary details and negative drivel that no one wants to hear. I can feel the word bile rising up in me this very second, but I will resist! Suffice it to say it was bad. Not quite the worst, as we all made it home safely. But whatever the slot is right under worst? That's where we landed. Maybe not number 1 in worst case scenarios, but  number 1.5 with a bullet.
Oh looky there. I spent a whole paragraph NOT talking about it. (insert ironic tone of voice) THATS wierd.

But the whole experience got me thinking. How sometimes we think things are bad. We hiss and moan and throw a mini-fit about how annoying/unbelievable/unfair/exhausting/sad/unlucky/etc our situation seems. And if we dont verbally throw this mini-fit, you know its happening mentally, or at least under our breath. But whats funny, is that most of the time the things that send us into these tailspins are really nothing more than mere inconveniences. Okay, I'll stop saying "we" and "us". Im really talking about me. I guess its presumptuous to lump all of you in with me as having an admittedly rotten attitude at times.

At about hour 7 of our ill fated travels, a 'fit' would be an understatement describing the way some people were acting. Not my people, thank God. I can say, with some small measure of pride, that my whole family, 1yr old and 3yr old included kept their cool. No tantrums, fits, or nuclear meltdowns. There was some crying, Im not gonna lie. I AM gonna lie and say it wasnt me doing the crying. But it wasnt until the 14th hour of said ill fated travels (and it was partly because I thought we might all die. So sue me.)

But what sort of strikes me as funny, is that here people are, all strung out and up in arms and indignant about how outrageously bad the situation was, when in reality, it was only about to get worse. If we only knew! Im laughing out loud,  typing this right now. Glad the whole debacle isnt too fresh to seem funny. Sometimes you gotta laugh, otherwise you'll cry, right?!

But I digress. Back to the point. ...?...Oh yes! My point IS that its really all relative. Troubles, that is. And arent troubles often just as fleeting as the good times anyways?  I mean really- half of the time I waste my energy being anxious, upset or worried about something, its just that. Wasted energy. So my new litmus test for whether or not I should stress out is this: In two weeks from now, will it matter?

Will it matter that I have had one of those days that the odds just seem against me? Probably not. Will it matter that I was inconvenienced in some small way? Doubt it. Will I remember that my children were full of the dickens and made it very hard for me to control the volume of my voice? Haha, maybe. Okay fine, not likely. Will it be worth getting snippy with my spouse over?  In two weeks from now, will it carry any weight at all? Does it even matter?

There is something about the holidays that tends to bring out the nasty in a lot of people, right? Something about it that makes them feel entitled to wave their Freak Flag.  I have seen a 70yr old woman get physical with another woman over a shirt at a sample sale. 70 yrs old! And Im not exaggerating when I say "physical".  I've felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up at the grocery store because the person behind me in the 12 Items or Less lane is putting out a slightly manic, urgent vibe - and visibly counting up my items to make sure Im not doing her and the rest of the world some great injustice by being having 13 things in my cart. Not to mention the usual customer service or sales person who gets cursed out for simply doing their job.

There really is something to be said for being easygoing. And there really is something to be said for perspective. We are safe. We are healthy. We are happy- on the level that it really counts anyway.

I have always refused to make New Year's resolutions. I dont do it. But I am making it a December Personal Goal, that if I must err, to err on the side of graciousness. I dont exactly believe in karma, but I also dont believe in being a big fat jerk. Happy Holidays everyone!