I have a friend who lived in the south for many years and she has an expression, ‘any day you wake up on this side of the dirt is a good day.’  I say it in my head sometimes when I am having a not so good day, as a gentle reminder to find something, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, for which I am thankful. Some days are better than others, no doubt about it, and some days are so bad, it does feel like the bottom’s dropped out, that you wonder why you got out of bed, or why you went to work, or why you even are bothering to drive home and start the cycle again.  We’ve all had them, and for those of you who have not, well, they’ll come, perhaps when you are least expecting it, which is sad, but probably true.

I’ve been, even in just the last couple years, gloriously giddy, amazingly apathetic, somber & sad, joyful & jolly, rolling in the money and empty pocketed…to write that we all have ups and downs is something of a ridiculous understatement is it not???  Sometimes it is very difficult to be happy for your friends or family or simply people you know, when they seem to be having infinitely better days or months or lives than you are, but you must. You must not become so bogged down with thoughts of “why not me?” that you miss out on even the little bits of good, or even tiny slivers of mediocrity…there is good and wonderfulness in every single day if you force yourself to see it or train yourself to notice.

I so believe that we get what we give, I so believe in the cycle of karma and the balance of things.  When I myself have suffered with the “why not me” syndrome, which I hate but with which I am occasionally afflicted, I have found that the only way out of that mire and muck is to remind myself of ALL the good, no matter how insignificant the good may seem at first, if I make myself pay attention to all the positives in my life, there becomes no room whatsoever for the negatives. I know people at this very moment dealing with some very heavy-hearted worrisome stuff, and I know people at this very moment living high on the hog without any worries in the world.  For some, dealing with illness, or job loss, or familial or financial problems, it may seem that things just keep going down, DOWN, D O W N…but they won’t stay that way, they never do, even though it often feels like things will simply never improve.  That expression about everything that goes up must come down also works in reverse…when life feels so low or things feel so bad, there is no place but Up to go…