April 17, 2013

story time

Everybody sitting criss-cross apple sauce and ready for story time?
Thought so. 

Yesterday in one of my younger ballet classes, a girl came in with a scowl. I don't mean a yo mama is mad at you kind of scowl, I mean a dirty 'ole how dare you wake me up from my nap scowl. The after school aid assured me that she was okay, just woke up on the wrong side of the bed after her nap. I tried to make class extra fun for her--I cheered on her petite jetes, I applauded when she did a passé and balanced, I even made sure to give her the special stamp first. My efforts were worthless. This girl was not happy and not interested in letting anyone think otherwise. 

I was impressed that she danced the whole class and maintained the scowl. There was no crying, no refusing to dance...just scowling. 

Then I thought, Wow, I bet I don't look half as cute when I spend my days scowling. (It was a really cute scowl, okay?)

Monday was such a Monday this week. All of the Monday cliches and prejudices ran true on this Monday and I was over. it. I was over everything. I was annoyed and unhappy and had my best scowl face on. 

But why was I unhappy? Because I can't control life? Because my bed is against a wall and there is only one side of my bed on which I can wake up? Because maybe things aren't going the way I think they should?

Dumb. 
Everything that happened in Boston on Monday kind of showed my scowling what was up. Here I was making myself miserable over little things when people were in trouble. People needed real help. People were hurt.

I am no poet, by any means. And I don't mean the rhyming poet because I am SO one of those. (But that's a story for a different day. Yay! Okay? See, rhymes rhymes rhymes). But Alexa wrote a wonderful post yesterday and basically put all of my feelings into words. And by my feelings, I mean the feelings that I can never write gracefully. Go read her post here

I am going to turn that frown/scowl upside down (more poet talk!) and end with some happy little schtuff over here. Put your smile on, everybody come on. 

I love do-overs and new days. And sunsets, of course.

I am thankful for my fam-damily and my Freddiefriend

I am grateful for all the good in the world. Because ya know what? Things are good. People are good. It's out there.

And blogging is good.
For the soul.
Over and out.

7 comments:

Erin said...

Such a great post girlfriend. I loved your story and the analogy that you brought with it. We complain and scowl over the smallest of things.. when really we should just be finding ways to make this Earth a better place and help those in need!

Helene said...

agreed agreed. i have been feeling scowlish myself and sometimes you gotta get over it. there are other things to be happy about. love this.

Staci said...

Love this post. And that girl's commitment haha

Rebecca S. said...

Sometimes we just have to put things in perspective. For the few bad guys, there were thousands that helped any way they could. We have to focus on the good in the world!

Rebecca S. said...
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Laura Darling said...

This is such a fantastic post! Definitely something I need to remember some days! :)

Ashley said...

Blogging really is good for the soul. I'm impressed that she maintained her scowl the whole time...that must have been a really great nap that was interrupted! I have been feeling the same lately...just kinda "blah" because I can't control a few things going on in my life lately, but like you said, Tuesday really put things into perspective didn't it? Thanks for this post, Em. Wonderful as always.