Challenge 14: Gratitude · Challenge 16: Pura Vida · positive thinking

Joyful Moment #616 Pickles

My grandma used to say, “If you don’t laugh about it, you’d be crying.” As a kid that made absolutely no sense. I get it now. 

Earlier this week, I went grocery shopping. I tried to stick to my list, but it was really hard to resist a jar of pickles. They were on sale for two dollars. I reached for one but somehow ended up knocking over the jar next to the one I wanted. It landed on my foot, rolled off my shoe and then gracefully went down the aisle.

My first reaction was to say ouch–it hurt. My second words surprised me. Here’s what came out of my mouth. 

“I’m so glad I have shoes. Oh, thank you beautiful shoes. You protected me. This could have been a serious injury. What a blessing. Shoes, you’re awesome.”

 Then I went after the ornery jar. I’m faster than pickles so it was soon in my cart where it belongs. My foot was throbbing.  The whole situation was ridiculous. I had just chased a runaway jar of pickles and talked to  my shoes. 

“If you don’t laugh about it, you’d be crying”. I get it, Grandma. I get it. 

In case anyone wants to know, my foot is okay.  No broken bones. I celebrated by eating a pickle with dinner.

Musings

Toilet Paper Tower

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I was walking around a corner at work last week and I saw the most delightful sight. The delivery man had stacked boxes of toilet paper about six feet high into the air.  The tower was just sitting there in the hallway waiting for a little kid to kick it.  As I looked at the tower, I had a great vision of all that toilet  paper  rolling out of their boxes and sliding down the hallway.   I couldn’t keep the giggles contained.  Once I start giggling, it’s rather hard to stop. I hurried back to my desk to get my cell phone. I wanted to take a picture of the toilet paper tower. I knew I would probably never see much toilet paper again in my entire life. Unfortunately, I was called into a meeting on my way back into the hallway. By the time the meeting was done, my tower was gone. I’m sure the toilet paper found a home in the bathrooms but I was disappointed that I didn’t get a picture of the tower.

P.S. This is by no means an endorsement for kicking a 6 feet tall stack of toilet paper. I have to say that.  If you should happen to be at a school and see a toilet paper tower,  I don’t want it to be on my head that you get called into the principal’s office for making a mess.

Challenge 14: Gratitude

The Sad Party

Yesterday, I had a really rotten day. I tried all my usual let’s feel better tricks and nothing was working. It was obvious that I was sad.  I decided to embrace the feeling and host a sad party.  I got myself a bowl of ice cream and then I turned on the TV.  The news was a little too sad. I ended up watching the last 45 minutes of Titanic instead. I haven’t seen that movie since I was 19. I remember crying and crying when Leonardo DiCaprio died. It was so sad. Guess What? The movie is still sad as a 37 year old. It was the perfect movie for my sad party. I painted my nails and wrote sad poems during the commercial breaks.  I then stood in front of the mirror and made sad faces,  except that made me laugh because my faces looked silly.  I should have sad parties more often. It ended up being a lot of fun. Does anyone want to join my next sad party?

My latest challenge is to find one joyful moment in every day.  What is a joyful moment? A joyful moment is when something makes you smile, laugh or just feel a little tickle of joy inside your heart. My silly, sad faces in the mirror was my joyful moment.

Photo I like

I took this photo a few years ago on a trip to Florida. It was right before a thunderstorm. I like the picture because it can be seen in two ways. The storm is threatening the sunlight or the sun is breaking up the storm. Photography is cool in that way.