Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

I lost an earring today.  It wasn’t expensive but I LIKED these earrings and obviously, I can’t wear just one of them.  And then I went out to the store to get a gift for a friend, found the PERFECT gift, stood in line FOREVER to pay for it and then decided after I paid for it that it WASN’T the perfect gift, it wasn’t going to work, got back in line FOREVER and came home with nothing.  And then I thought there was something wrong with the washing machine.  And there were other things…mostly little stuff and I was irritable all morning.  Pathetic, huh?

So between that and a few posts from people who are beating themselves up because they are miserable over what they call small stuff when so many people are dealing with BIG stuff like cancer or dying parents or whatever, I’ve decided that stuff is stuff.  Some of it is big and some isn’t but it doesn’t matter.  Whatever we have to deal with, we have to deal with and it is never easy.

I remember reading a piece that talked about a woman who said it was EASY to get through the big stuff.  Besides, the big stuff is usually relatively public (cancer, death, accidents) and everyone is so impressed when you manage it so well.  It’s the small stuff that’s really hard to get through cheerfully.  So hats off to all of us when we actually can not sweat the small stuff.  It’s not as easy as it looks.   (By the way, Jerry FOUND the earring…yay, Jerry.  Turned my whole day around. However,  I STILL have to find a good gift for a friend)

Two quotes…but they don’t come on pretty posters. I just like them a lot.   The first was one Deirdre saw in her exercise place (thanks, Deirdre)  It said something like “If you want to do something, you will find a way.  If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.”

The other comes from a book I’m reading called Hello From the Gillespies (thanks, Anne, for recommending it)  It opens with a woman writing her annual Christmas letter and she’s not in a good place and can’t get started this particular year, so she uses it for therapy…and vents..about her daughters, about her husband who doesn’t talk to her any more and might be having an affair, about his aunt who is coming for Christmas and is the most impossible old bag on the planet.  She fully intends to delete this and write the real letter but  by mistake, the letter gets sent out to 100 of their nearest and dearest friends (what a nightmare)  Anyway, the quote, which isn’t even about the letter is something about having one thing after another happen to you until you know for sure you cannot bear one more bad thing to happen…and then the next bad thing DOES happen and guess what, you can bear it.

Finally, Gayle Neher’s son, Sam, works at MD Anderson and texted his mom the other day to say he was walking down a hall and saw this.  Larger than life…I’m FAMOUS!  And my hair never looked so good. I should ALWAYS wear a wig.

At MD Anderson