On the bright side

This morning found me in the boys' room, putting their clean clothes away.  Lest you think less of me, let me assure you that this is a rare occurrance--generally, the boys put their own clothes away.  But, I happened to be down there, and was feeling generous, so I started putting clothes away.  It was all going rather swimmingly, when suddenly, it occurred to me that today is Monday.

{insert sinister music here}

Do you know what that means?  Today is laundry day.  *gasp!*  Again.  *sigh*

(Just in case you didn't catch that, I was just putting away clean laundry from the last time we had laundry day.)

Never. Ending.

A split second later, my brain pipes up, "well, at least you have clothes to launder," which reminds me of a friend of mine.  She has this habit of always looking on the bright side.  Always.  That is exactly the kind of thing she would say if I complained to her about the never ending drudgery that is my laundry.

I actually find this habit of hers a little annoying.  I mean, all I want to do is wallow in my misery for one (ok, maybe five...or ten) measly moments, and here she is pointing out that I am blessed beyond measure.  Thank you kindly, friend, but I already know that--it's kind of a given.  That's the knee-jerk unspoken thought that accompanies each and every one of my gripes and complaints.  I am so blessed to have these trivial things to complain about.

But you know, there is power in the spoken word.  You know there is.  Even if no one is there to hear it, words, once spoken, can never be recalled.

I've mentioned before that the voices in my head sometimes tell me terrible things.  Well, because of them, I've kind of gotten used to the fact that not everything my brain tries to tell me is true.  It's all in my head, and therefore, is suspect, including the good stuff, like "I am so blessed to have these trivial things to complain about."  Might not be completely true.  Nobody said it out loud.

So I'm thinking I might be speaking these things out loud a little more often.  Love you, friend--you teach me so much.

Hopefully I won't annoy myself too, too much.

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By the way, if you just sorta skipped over that link up there, take another look.  It's a worthwhile post to read--a great reminder to be gentle with ourselves.