It's Sunday evening...the eve of another week of remote learning for my five children and remote teaching for me. While I should be spending this time perfecting my lesson plans, I feel compelled to get a message to you. Yes...this time is tough. Yes...we miss how life used to be. Yes...we are tired and overdrawn, and unable to see an end in sight. And finally, yes...when we wake up to this reality again tomorrow, it is possible to Have an Awesome Day Anyway!
As far as anxiety and stress are concerned, if it is a sudden onslaught of either or both, my response is not generally that of most...I meet spontaneous stress, such as witnessing a car accident or coming upon a hallway teenage confrontation, with peace and calm. Those who know me have come to realize that my peaceful nature does not always accurately convey the urgency that might be necessary, but that is just how I respond. My response is spot-on, unequivocally, full of Donna-ness. (This, by the way, I know drives some people crazy!)
But what about the anxiety and stress that accompanies ongoing disillusionment or consistent-under-the-radar abuse to the system? This type of stress can easily go undetected until my body eventually begins to respond with the desire to sleep more, work less and exude a shortness of happiness that belies my innately optimistic personality. Given a long enough trip down the path of low-level stress, or in our present case, high-level stress that has become the daily norm so as to be disguised as low-level stress, and I neglect to take proper care of my well-being. Think 15 to 20-year-marriage-that-went-south-before-its-first-anniversary, kind of stress. It just silently ferments and eats away at the heart, suffocates the drive and deteriorates the self, until suddenly the victim realizes that they have been reduced...in some undetected and undefined way. The victim has become a survivor.
My friends, that is where we are. We are in the midst of an anxiety ridden timeframe. There is no current escape. This is not immediately fixable by you, or me, or anyone. It just is...low-level, high-level, constant-eat-away-at-the-soul, stress and anxiety. But here's the thing. We cannot wait any longer in hopes that it relents. We have to live! We have to have an awesome day! We need to repeat our mantras and meet these challenging times with deliberate determination to make today amazing and tomorrow even better!
I get it. This is not like staying in a bad relationship where we have control over the timeframe. This is not like quelling the savage teenage attitude where we have control over the outcome. This is a pandemic, where we have been forced to relinquish any and all control. Or have we? I don't think so. We can still have control over our choices, our actions, our interactions. We have the control to have an awesome day anyway.
And so, my wish for you on the eve of this new week: Have an Awesome Day Anyway. Not sure how? Look around you. Appreciate the world moving along with the seasons, daily weather, cycles of life. Appreciate that you can serve others with a smile, an air hug, a love-note. Go buy a little gift and leave it on a doorstep, or under your child's pillow. Don't miss these opportunities to have an awesome day anyway. I know I am about to get started on mine. And the next day, guess what? My plan is the same and I will do it all over again. I will continue to write it in my journal and on my heart:
"Today is the perfect day to have an awesome day anyway!"
