Monday morning cup of thoughts

even a wannabe pompom girl with the power of positive thought needs a cheerleader occasionally.

This is a longer Monday post than usual; I'll be making up for Friday. 

A little history, I tried out to be a pompom girl in 10th grade or some grade close to that. I could do the splits in every which direction, but I wasn't voted in by the school population. I'm laughing now, realizing that some of that population reads my posts; how fortunate I am to continue connecting with the souls of my youth. 

Of course, I was crushed. (I'm still working through the aftermath… Nah, just messin' with y'all.) 

Moving on to the real story… 

This last week I came down with the same flu-like symptoms I experienced in early January. By Friday I had become discouraged. The reality is I haven't caught up with myself since January regarding my chores, writing, loved ones, and stamina. But I was finally feeling up to par, and I had plans. Oh my God, I'm nothing if not a gal with plans. 

And let me say before I even write this that I am beyond cognizant of how lucky I am to be complaining about a virus, even two times in three months. I never…okay, rarely… lose sight of my blessings. 

But Friday morning, sitting at the breakfast table with Rick, forced to call in sick to the new job I love (more about that soon), I admitted how frustrated I was. I followed that up with how guilty I felt to even feel frustrated; I haven't been ill since 2018. 

And then, I continued to wallow in self-pity for another ten minutes after predicting that I would miss all the lovely things I had planned for next week. 

If you are one of my readers who truly has something to complain about, please let's take a moment to roll our eyes together. But then read on; I'll get there.

Rick heard me out. He had no choice, given that I declared upfront that I knew I had nothing to complain about but needed to do just that, complain. He listened in his quiet, contemplative way (it's always a challenge to know how he might respond, but a blessing to know he will always offer his truth, which is often a guiding light.) 

He simply responded, "hmm, what's happened to that positive thinker I'm married to? You're deciding you will still be sick next week just because you were sick for two weeks in January?"

Damn, I hate it when he's right. We're such competitive game players in the true sense, actual games like cards and Yahtzee, any game, really. We start and end our days with games. 

But there it was, on my breakfast table, as visible as the toast he had made for me; I was deciding how the next week would play out, and I was losing sight of what I strive to teach, the power of positive thought.

I gave him his win, but I still had doubts about my already aggravated cough subsiding any time soon. 

I spent the remainder of the day, and the next, taking a bit of my own medicine, so to speak, and also following the advice of a few of my dear friends about the power of vitamin C. I began to dose up. 

And much to my delight, I woke up Saturday morning after a whole night's sleep, with my cough improved. And then again Sunday morning, improved to the point that I spent the day catching up with my writing and started to sew on the first quilt I've worked on in over 15 years. The story about that is here if you haven't already read it.

And, a huge reason to celebrate, I woke up to snow this morning; again, if you're a long-time reader, you know how much I love snow. 

Instead of spending the day coughing and feeling miserable as I had predicted in my tiny tantrum on Friday, I was in heaven sewing on my new machine, enjoying the magical white stuff out my windows, creating a piece of art that will warm my heart for years to come every Valentine's Day when I hang it on my kitchen wall— and hopefully beyond my lifetime, my children's walls or my grandchildren's. And I enjoyed a great movie on Netflix, This is Where I Leave You, while I sewed.

The moral of this story is… we all need a shoulder to cry on at times, a cheerleader (or a pompom girl) to rally us, to lend a hand and remind us that… 

We have the power to overcome. 

We are only given what we can shoulder, especially if we take advantage of leaning on the angels we have been provided with.

Our thoughts can take us where we wish and still need to go. 

It's up to us to believe.