the truth is...

over here, it's not always sunshine and lollipops
and painting rocks to look like toadstools...
i know that's the picture i want to paint,
that it's always pug hugs and belly laughs in the big orange house...

and most of the time it is...
:)

but sometimes, it's not.

sometimes it's stress and deadlines and worry
about the things that are out of your control...

sometimes it's the spinning plates that normally make you
intensely happy
but that also have the capacity to shatter you
when they start to fall...

sometimes it's the realization that only disney mice are cute...
that one little bastard that keeps getting away?
you hate that creepy crawly little jerk with a passion
you didn't know you had....

sometimes it's the frustration of waiting for something
that you think is going to be the fix to all of your problems
only to find out that it is not going to happen as soon as you thought
and now is the time to dig out that back up plan
that you wrote on a napkin in secret code
and hope you remember how to decipher it....

but at the same time...

it is also remembering that these are only blips...
money comes...money goes...
blip.

no, the lilac tree didn't flower but there's a new bleeding heart
you weren't expecting and hostas that a sweet friend
gifted you with...

it's focusing on just doing what you can do...
breathing deep and letting go...
finding something to laugh hard at every day
(even if it is that the damned kamikaze mouse fell
on your daughter while she was sitting on stairs....)
it's being kinder to everyone around you
because it rings true to you to remember that
everyone has their own story going on behind the scenes
and it doesn't cost
anything
to be kind.

it's knowing that you have been here before,
chances are, you will be here again...
and remembering the little piece of truth your mom always told you
"things are always better in the morning".

“You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut. ”

— ― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!