Today I am taking a quick detour to talk about expectations, reactions and the wisdom of choice (or free will).

Toseland didn’t sleep well last night, and his dog woke him up early.

So he went back to sleep and when I met him for coffee this morning, he was all end of the world doom and gloom.  For example:

•  I didn’t sleep all night
• The dog woke me in the middle of the night
•  I’m going to be late for work
• This is an awful day
• I don’t see how it could get any better

All this and more by 8 am…

Don’t get me wrong – all this is tragic stuff.  And all of it on the same day might well be the stuff of nightmares.  I can quite see how this would cast a certain kind of pall over your day. Especially a wet and gloomy day like today…

But I couldn’t help nodding along and thinking “bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, and I’m not on dialysis anymore.” (Yay!)

Or as Katy might think “bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, and I might die.” (Ironically, not literally). Then again, Katy’s that kind of girl.

So between the three of us, three different early morning choices of outlook for the same circumstances.

I really do think that 8 am is just a wee bit too early to consign an entire day to the eternal dustbin of life.

I checked on Toseland a short while ago.  I know you’ll be relieved to know the dog is forgiven.  But he thought his day had stayed bad all day.  I think he started with the premise this is a bad day and looked for corroborating evidence – he chose to have a bad day.

For me, that could be the start of a bad day…

But I’m not on dialysis and I’m not dead, so result!

How could a day in my life that starts without dialysis be bad?  In the immortal words of James Reyne, “any day above ground is a good day” (I really must put that song on my phone).

So, the upshot here is that however bad it seems, it can always be worse.  I recommend you choose to believe it’s not that bad.

What would your choice be?