The Highs & Lows of a Day

In the course of day if we isolated all of the little moments that comprise our day, we would easily recognize the highs and lows we experienced. Oftentimes the highs boost us up and help us float above the lower moments. Traditionally, I coast through my day with so many things on my plate that I don’t always pay enough mind to these little moments.  Today, however, in reflecting back on my Saturday, I decided to marinate in highs and lows of my day.

This morning, Atticus woke up shortly after 5:00 a.m., bright eyed and bushy tailed. I begrudgingly walked down the hall to the nursery half awake to nurse him in the dark in hopes he would fall back asleep. There are times when wishes do come true, and soon we both were sound asleep. Two blissful hours later, he awoke again but this time I was rested, alert, and ready to take on the day.

Liam awoke shortly after us and the three of us crept into our room to wake up Sean with a plentiful amount of cuddles. We enjoyed breakfast and headed out for our Saturday coffee date. Then my best friend, Anna and her daughter, met up with us to enjoy the sunny outdoors at Howl-o-Ween Fest. We opted to take the shuttle to expedite our trip to the park. Unfortunately after six shuttles passed us up, we decided that walking might be the better alternative. On our way, Paige tripped and fell on the concrete, which resulted in a bloody skin abrasion and an unhappy five year old. This was definitely one of the lows of the day. Thankfully dogs in costumes, bounce houses, and snow cones were just a few of the wonderful things that overshadowed the lower points.

After lunch, Liam had a friend come over to play. Before heading to the nursery to get Atticus ready for his afternoon nap, I advised the boys to play quietly upstairs and that I would be up shortly to check on them. When I ascended the stairs, I was met with a surprise I could have never anticipated. Clearly not using his best judgement, Liam had decided to have a kinetic sand fight with his friend. There was blue sand in every nook and cranny the naked eye could see in the loft- on the carpet, on the table, in between the seat cushions on the couch, …. It took the patience of Job not to come unhinged, especially in front of his friend, but I held it together and employed the boys to help me clean up the mess they made. Thank goodness for the invention of the vacuum cleaner. It undoubtedly saved the day and restored normalcy to the upstairs. Hands down this event would prove to the lowest point of my day.

Thankfully watching the boys play and enjoy each others company quickly helped the negativity I was feeling subside. The rest of the afternoon included plenty of high moments including indulging in a lovely birthday cake truffle, sharing a delicious chili dinner with my family, and enjoying the gift of help as Sean took care of cleaning the kitchen and unloading the dishwasher.

In our day-to-day lives, the high and low moments we experience will vary significantly from one day to the next. Our stress levels and workloads will profoundly impact how easily we can brush off a low moment or expend a profuse amount of energy wallowing in it. In these less than ideal moments if we allow ourselves to take a step back, we can often find the silver lining in the negativity. Because hindsight is 20/20, it might take us longer to recognize the beauty in these seemingly low moments. If we allow ourselves to look at the situation with a different lens, however, we just might realize that our low moment really isn’t as bad as we initially thought it was. Here’s to the highs and lows we endure every day. May your high points far outweigh the low ones!