Every weekday morning, (weather permitting), I join my girlfriends at 6:15 for a brisk walk or run through our neighborhood. The only thing that keeps us from meeting is weather below 20 degrees, or heavy rain. We rarely miss our walks – especially if we have something on our minds. Yes… we actually keep a great pace (and there are a lot of hills), but we YACK the entire way. We’ve talked politics, child rearing, economy concerns, work related issues, how to solve world peace, etc. And, sometimes, we talk about absolutely nothing. These walks save me thousands in therapy $$$. These girls know many of my deepest secrets. In fact, I tease that I have to keep them as friends, because they know way too much about me!
One particular morning… we had just finished and we were stretching at the mailbox. We were gabbing about nothing in particular, and I felt something hit me in the back. I looked around and didn’t see anything, and then did the typical “turn your head as far as you can to see your back’ yoga pose to see what it was. We all saw it at the same time and took about 5 seconds for it to register. Oh my goodness… I had bird poop all the way down my back. I’m guessing that this bird had earned extra points for making it skip down my back 7 or eight times! I’m sure they were high fiving their big honking wings all the way to the next target. I’ve skipped rocks with less success!
We started laughing. We were laughing so hard that tears were rolling down our cheeks. Every attempt to stop laughing, was just met by snickers and more belly laughs. My neighbor across the street had walked out to get her paper, and I’m sure she thought we were crazy. When we finally regained our composure, I wondered out loud what getting hit with bird poop first thing in the morning could mean. Was this just a lousy start to what would turn out to be a crazy day? Should I stay in the rest of the day just to be sure? After sharing various bird poop stories, we headed off in our own directions to start our day ( and to start the sweat shirt soaking- haha).
A little later, during my morning talk with my mom, I told her about the bird poop. Laughingly, I mentioned that this could not possibly be a good way to start the day. Then Mom said something that totally made sense in her cheerful, mom voice (you know, the one that I DON’T have) – “So a bird pooped on you. What worse could possibly happen to you today? You’ve already got the worst part over with, so enjoy your fabulous day.”
And… I decided to take that advice. She was absolutely right. This silly little incident, as gross as it was, had already started my day with more laughter than I had had in weeks. Not so bad. Why dwell on bird poop… I decided to have a fabulous day. And…you know what, I did!
Who knew that getting dive bombed by a goose could be a good thing? Certainly not me… But, I realized a very valuable lesson. Just because it seems bad doesn’t mean it is. And, you can dwell on it all day make it worse, or, you can just look on the bright side, laugh and move on. You can’t change it, but you can move forward. So… remember, when your day gets off to a bad start… the worst is over… so enjoy your fabulous day!
Thanks mom!
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