“Why Is It on the Ground Again?!” In our last +1, we talked about our rooster, Happy. He’s still hanging in there. Today I want to continue the theme we explored in that +1 and see if we can get better at using the things that currently trigger us to feel annoyed, to instead, trigger us to feel grateful. Here’s an example from the Johnson house to help you think of things YOU might want to reframe in YOUR house. So… My son Emerson is a high-energy kid. Note: I was going to say my “little guy” Emerson but he’s almost 10 as I type this and he’s NO LONGER little. It’s shocking to see the speed with which he’s growing! As we’ve joked before, when he wakes up, he kinda runs out of the room like Kramer from Seinfeld—all energy all the time. It’s FANTASTIC. Except, of course, when it’s not. (Hah.) So… Mundane example. For some strange reason, when Emerson uses the toilet paper in the bathroom, he often rips it off the little horizontal bar it rests on and the roll of toilet paper winds up unraveled and strewn across the bathroom floor. L O L. Now… I’m a parent AND a teacher so, of course, we’ve had some Conquering Toilet Paper 101 classes on how to gently roll the toilet paper and gently rip the amount you need from the roll while ensuring it stays in place at the end of the job. (10 Big Ideas, folks! ) And… That lesson just hasn’t stuck. L O L. So… After Emerson’s done his thing, that toilet paper roll often winds up strewn across the bathroom floor. And… I can choose to use that toilet paper everywhere (again!) as either a trigger for my annoyance (and yet another lecture on the mechanics of toilet paper)…. OR… I can use that same trigger as an opportunity to appreciate the fact that, one day WAY too soon, that toilet paper roll is going to be perfectly and permanently affixed to its resting place—never to see the floor again. And… I just got tears in my eyes typing that. I’m not ready for that day yet. I want to fully enjoy the incredible enthusiasm of my not-so-little-boy who is becoming a wonderfully enthusiastic young man for as long as I can—knowing that, like all the other wonderful things in my life, will not last forever. That’s Today’s +1. Got a trigger? Seriously. Pause. Think of at least one little thing a loved one does that, if we ACTUALLY practiced our philosophy with a little more rigor, could EASILY be alchemized from annoying to charming… Go it? Awesome. Let’s remember the fact that life is preciously short. And… Let’s use everything we can as a reminder of just how precious it is. -1 to +1. All day. Every day. ESPECIALLY Today.
