In a funk

Everyone has their days that they are off or in a bad mood, or things are not going like they think, plan or want. This is normal. And having off days or days in a funk is also normal.

I love to watch people and since I work with teenagers and pre-teen kids it is interesting to see and watch their behavior. You can tell a lot by how they behave and act around their friends. It is entertaining to say the least! I have one young lady on my dance squad who is a schlep (that is the only, nice way I can describe her)....she is always slopping around like she does not care...she moves at the pace of a snail, she is always complaining about not feeling good and her attitude is blah and negative. I'm not discounting that maybe she does have some health issues but her friends and teammates comment on how she can be upbeat and happy one minute and the next she feels awful and is miserable-which is more the norm for her...she is miserable to be around too. Maybe she really does have some health issues. But in the two short months I've worked with her I have to admit I read her like a book the first week of practice and could pretty much tell what she was doing. For her the cup is half empty, at best. She has poor work ethics and is always in a poor mood.

Some people make one small incident ruin their whole day. I will admit I have let this happen to me before. We all do. And I've kicked myself afterwards for wasting a day or letting some worthless individual ruin a day, when I should have just blew it off and went on my merry way. Go rain on someone else's day. I'm mad at myself for the people who I've let ruin or take the happy and fun out of my life. We only get one chance at today and no one is guaranteed tomorrow. I would not want my last day on this earth to be a crappy one because of some small negative or because of someone small and negative. I have to remind myself of this. I have to find the happy from me, not someone else or something else.

Years ago I had a really close friend. We would talk daily and our kids played together. We shared similar family values except she thought the world revolved around her kids and if things didn't go as she thought, wanted or liked, especially at school she was on a rampage. She was storming in, making phone calls, and bending the ear of anyone who would listen. It was sad because a lot of the problems were not really problems and she would make a mountain out of a mole hill in 2.2 seconds. One day she called me venting about something at school...I listened and I remember thinking she was making a big deal over nothing. I listened just to give her an ear to listen I was not offering advice nor was I going to be a cheerleader on her team for her latest issue. But I stopped listening when she made the comment that I was a lot more understanding than the previous friend she had called about this. What??? She was calling friends looking for someone to listen and be on her side. I was listening but not on her side. That day was the beginning of the end of our close friendship. We are still friends but not like we were and I'm not sure who she vented and bitched to after that day, but it wasn't me any more. It was the last time her negative Nancy behavior wasted any more of my time. I made a clear and conscience effort to close that door and be done. Life has been better without that. And I need to continue to do this for my own health and wellbeing now as well.

There is a difference between being in a funk or down and depression. I  had a front row seat to depression as a teenager when my dad was dealing with it. I don't know a lot of the information from his childhood and honestly the few things I do know makes my heart sad and I understood what he was dealing with more, and the cause of his depression. It also makes me thankful that I didn't have to deal with my grandmother...and I will leave it at that. My dad had a lot of days in a funk and I have no idea how my mom dealt with that or him.

So on those funk days...like I had earlier this week (it was one of those days I'd rather work with animals or small children if that is any indication of how it was)...I try to dig myself out, pick myself up and ignore the negative and crappy people who are in my world. Things could be a lot worse. Some of the negative and crappy people in my life  I have control of...I can eliminate, distance or ignore them. And others are there and I just have to deal with...it is what it is and I firmly believe God puts them in my life to remind and show me how not to be and to appreciate what I have. And I forget and get on that funk bandwagon sometimes but I eventually get myself off and out of that funk and come back to looking at life as half full.

Remember the fact that we should  a) be grateful we have a glass b) that there is something in the glass and c) the glass is refillable.

Make it a glass half-full, I have a glass and I can refill it kind of day!