August 02, 2015 - Saturday morning began badly for me last week and if I am claiming a bad morning, you have to believe me, it was a bad start. The only time I have slept for more than 15 to 20 consecutive minutes has been following one of the several surgeries I have had. So, when I think it was a bad night, then it was a long and sleepless one. A couple of years ago, I started a newsletter with a similar paragraph and my readers told me they thought, "Wow, Dave is not doing well." They were right, but, then I continued by talking about turning things around and finding joy.Most nights I have little problem falling sleep; staying asleep is the problem. Friday night / Saturday morning I could not go to sleep because of a head cold. Every time I moved, I coughed. I stopped trying after a couple of hours and got up for forty minutes. I then went back to bed exhausted, but failed to go to sleep for the rest of the night. To add to the great start, my wife woke up unable to move her knee. We have no idea what she could have done to hurt it, but she cannot walk. So here we are, two old grouches starting Saturday moaning and groaning, in a horrible mood. About 8:30am, our oldest son called to ask what we were planning to do today, because he and his family want to do something with us. I groaned at him and said I would talk to mum then call him back. At this point, only our 5-year-old daughter is awake. All this summer, she has woken up at 7am and come knocking on our bedroom door. In a few weeks, school will be back and she will have to wake at 7am. Who wants to give me some odds on whether she will voluntarily get out of bed at 7am? I doubt I would make any money on such a bet. lol
How many of you have started your Saturday feeling like this? You want to stay asleep but circumstances are working against you. I have to believe this scenario is played out in many, many homes each weekend. Probably not exactly the same, as not everyone has the same family setup. There are also not that many families have someone who suffers from the devil cursed disease of RSD/CRPS. Or have someone who wakes up with a twisted knee and in agony when they were not suffering when they went to sleep. There are, however, hosts of other reasons the day can start badly. I am sure you could write several blogs yourself on how NOT to start a Saturday, things you have tried yourself.
So, what do we do when this is our Saturday morning? Moan, groan, whine and gripe is one option. Shouting at the children and anyone who comes close to us for doing anything other than breathing, will naturally follow doing this.
I would argue we should act as if we are at our peak and whatever is happening is not going to get us down. Even though life, the universe, the gremlins or whatever is giving you grief, is making your day miserable, it is important, in fact essential, that we act as if everything is copacetic. I love this word because it sounds so cool. I can just see 1960's flower power people using the word. If you have never heard of it click on the link for the dictionary definition.
Being copacetic means you find things very satisfactory, very acceptable, not that everything is nice or wonderful. It is a state of mind that says, "You know what? I am going to be happy, anyway! Regardless of what's currently happening. " Copacetic may mean something completely different to you than it means to you. I suffer constant chronic pain and a good day for me, may be a totally horrible day for you. Imagine living with several toothaches, a couple of twisted ankles and either giving birth or being kicked in the groin depending on your gender and you might begin to imagine my good days. If you are male who wants to know what it is like to give birth, go to a gym and have someone throw a medicine ball at your groin repeatedly for several hours. Let me know if you try it, I would be interested in sharing your experience. Please note this is not a recommendation. Do not try this because you think I am telling you to do so, I am not! It is also true that a day you find totally satisfactory could be unacceptably boring to me. Each of us relates to things differently and what is easy for one person to handle may be completely impossible for someone else to deal with.
The concept of using the word copacetic to describe how our day is going is a completely personal thing. If it is satisfactory to you then it does not matter what anyone else thinks or feels.
My family and I decided to go to Fort Bridger in Wyoming for the day. Why there? Because we like it there. It was the meeting place for all of the western migrations and thousands of pioneers passed through the fort over its 60 or so years of existence. It is only 100 miles north of where we live up Interstate 80. Ann took some pain medicine and put a knee brace on her knee, I pulled on my big boy undies, and we got on with the day. Did I still hurt horribly? Yes! Was I exhausted? All day long! Did Ann's knee hurt? Yes! Did we enjoy the day? Yes, we did! Sharing it with our children and grandchildren made the day fun and wonderful.
Fort Bridger has special a spirit left behind by all the people who passed through on the way to their future. Some were headed to Oregon and a new life there; some were headed to California, also for a new life and, after gold was found in 1847, with the hope of striking it rich. There is also the Mormon trail being followed by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seeking the right to practice their religion in peace. I do not know the correct word to describe the feelings and emotions these thousands of people left behind, but you can sense all the hopes etc. they had. Good days, by our standards, were probably few and far between. They traveled about 11 miles a day on a good day and sometimes only managed to get everyone up or down a steep incline on another. They had to decide to be copacetic or quit and go back the way they had come. Some actually did this.
Whether your day is starting well or badly the only thing you can control is how you find the day. Be copacetic and happy or find everything unsatisfactory and be unhappy. It is your choice to make. Me? Everything is copacetic!
Click here to look at my new book Fighting Pain Finding Joy.
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق