A Little Perspective

We interrupt this three month blogging hiatus to bring you an important message: Bone Junior is still alive; albeit really sucking at blogging. And I apologize in advance that this post will be brief and probably not funny at all.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about something that happened a few weeks ago. It was something so small and insignificant, but it really made me stop and think about how lucky and blessed I really am.

I was stopped in construction, sitting in my car with the windows down and my hair blowing in the breeze, when I got that feeling that someone was watching me. I looked over and saw a construction worker lady. She was probably forty-something going on sixty-five, with sun bleached orangy hair, brown leathery skin, holding a stop sign with one hand and smoking a Virginia Slim 100 with the other hand. She was standing right outside my passenger window, and I immediately tried not to make eye contact.

I was concentrating very hard on staring straight ahead, when she bent down and put her face right in my window. I momentarily considered rolling the window up, because who puts their head into a complete strangers car... But then she smiled and said in a raspy voice, "Go ahead, girl! Every day must be a great day for you because of this car! Go ahead with your bad self!"

And then I couldn't help but smile and laugh with her, because she was right - here I was, negative, pessimistic, critical, often feeling sorry for myself; and this lady took one look at me and saw what a great life I have. She was a construction flagger, standing outside every day in the heat, who knows what kind of car she drives, what her situation is - and there she was, reminding me that every day SHOULD be a great day for me.

Sure a car is just a material thing - most people don't care what kind they drive, how it looks, or whatever. I love my car, but there are times when I complain about it; I complain about almost everything in my life at one time or another. But this one lady's comment brought me to a harsh realization: I am not nearly grateful enough for the simple things in my life.

Because of her, I have had a huge change of perspective on my life. When I'm in a bad mood, it's so easy to list off a million reasons why my life stinks. Now I'm trying a different approach. When I'm in a bad mood, I get into my car, roll down the windows and say, "Go ahead, girl!" and it reminds me that even when I feel like everything is falling apart, I ALWAYS have at least one thing to be grateful for. Thinking of one thing leads to another, and another, and soon I'm listing off all the reasons why I'm so lucky.

And that makes me feel pretty darn good - even if it all starts with something as insignificant as a Mustang.