This was not a good morning.
When I got up the house was cold. I like to start the day by running a mile or so. I looked out and the trees were bending in the wind. I decided to go run anyway, after all it wasn't raining. Half way into my run it started pouring. You know the kind, a cold driving rain that hurts when it hits your face.
I came home, soaking wet, ate breakfast, showered and dressed for work. I needed to run two errands which would only take a minute. The first errand the bank was not open; the second errand was a line that would cause me to miss my train. Driving to the train station, I followed a school bus full of kids and windows so fogged over that no one could see out.
Then I saw it.
Smiling, giggling kids, drawing happy faces on the windows. They woke up into the same kind of day that I did. But they made happy faces out of it. It reminds me again that our perception of things is not based on external reality. It is more about who we are. We have the power to choose the thoughts that shape our feelings and attitudes.
The Psalmist said it well. "Put a new and right spirit within me. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise"... even when it is not a good morning. |