Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Melancholy Monday

Dr. Wayne Dyer tells me that while I might not be able to control what goes on outside, I can control what goes on inside. I like Dr. Dyer, but his pronouncement rings more true when you're not already savoring a bad attitude. Apparently I am out of control. On the heels of my "Fight Back Fun Martina" post, I found myself in a dreadful mood yesterday.

Already dwelling on an off-hand, probably not ill intentioned comment that was made to me on Sunday (wishy-washy indeed!), I managed to bump my bad knee, thereby re-bruising a spot that had almost healed, and also found that my Nano output for the weekend had been lost. Lost! By noon, I had noticed that the last leaf will soon fall from the once golden poplars outside my window and the rain was coming down even harder. From there, it was a lament about the impending holidays and my small family of two having no other family, and, God, what will happen when it inevitably dwindles to an even smaller family of one? There was nothing I wanted to do more than go home and curl up into a ball and cry.

Of course, that was not an option either, because Monday is the night I go to class. By 5 o'clock, I had pretty much talked myself into going despite my reservations about doing anything not involving the fetal position and copious tears. I told myself that it wasn't fair to be part of a group that involves discussion and sharing, then only show up at my convenience. That was before my normally thirty minute drive home took me over an hour. At that point, beaten by darkness, rain and my own mood, I just gave up.

I ate dinner, took a hot bath (this was much to Loki's delight as he loves to sit next to the tub to have warm water trickled onto his fur), talked to Jen for a bit, and went to bed. There was no crying, just trying to remember that it was just a bad day; that I really don't have it that bad. On some level, I even knew that I was creating my own bad mood, by letting a few little inconveniences snowball into something big.

Dr. Dyer is right. We do create much of our own inner landscape in the way we react to the outside. Understanding that is one thing. Using it is quite another. So, melancholy Monday behind me, I move to begin a new day, a day that is looking much more hopeful.

3 comments:

Jen said...

oh, I'm so sorry you had a melancholy monday. Those are no fun at all. I hope that tuesday was better for you!

It's funny that you post about making our own inner landscape today -- yesterday I just got a book on the brain from the library that talks about this same issue, among others. (a mind of its own: how your brain distorts and deceives by cordelia fine). I'm only a few chapters in, but it is fascinating.

Martina said...

That does sound like an interesting book. I'm really fascinated by the idea that we do choose our own realities and that we actually do have a choice in which things we allow to upset us. I think there comes a point with the big upheavals (death, etc.) where that choice becomes more and more difficult to control, but on a smaller, daily level, I like the idea that while we cannot control what goes on outside, we can determine how we are going to react to it and how much we will let it get to us. Being a person who does sometimes tend to allow little injustices to snowball in to a big, giant funk of a mood, it's a good thing for me to remember.

Martina said...

P.s. Tuesday's election outcomes did (for the most part...Karen Minnis, why? Why, I ask of you Troutdale and environs????) brighten my spirits!