When it rains. In your car.

I read a quote recently that how you start your day is how you are going to live your day. And how you live your day is how you are going to live your life.

While I do agree that how you live your days is a pretty good indicator of how your life is going to go, I have a long way to go in getting my mornings in a place to set the tone for the day.

A typical day beings as such:

5:30am Sun comes up, birds sing, dog MUST GO OUTSIDE NOW. Resume sleep.
6:30am Dog wants to come inside. Resume sleep.
6:45am Alarm goes off. Snooze.
7:00am SleepCycle App doesn’t let me snooze anymore; idly check FB
7:15-7:30am Get out of bed, walk around half naked, thinking for the 100th time that I really need to get new blinds or curtains for my windows rather than giving the neighbors a daily peep show, scramble for clothes to wear knowing it would be easier if I actually wasn’t living out of laundry baskets, feed the dog while debating if I really NEED a Costco membership as all I buy there is dog food, make coffee while inhaling the exhilarating scent of fresh coffee grounds (why do wet ones smell so awful??), search for shoes, keys, phone, put lunch together, finally make it out the door, forget coffee, or lunch, or keys, or phone, back in the house, lose keys, quickly glance in the mirror for the first time that day to make sure I look like a functioning member of society, back to the car, snapchat a motivational quote, and on my way!

I mean, I would love to wake up an hour early, maybe do some yoga or get in a light workout, quietly sipping my coffee as the sun comes up and journal about my goals for the day, write down three things I am grateful for, and say my affirmations that are written all over my bathroom mirrors five times out loud, setting clear intentions on how the day will go. But…. I’m not there yet.

So, in expected fashion, today was not much unlike the afore mentioned chaos other than my princess pup decided to wake up at 4am instead of 5:30am, giving me a little more time to snooze after I let her inside. Oh, and then when finally I made way out the door for the first time, I was greeted with this view.

Maybe when Ripley was barking at 4am she was really trying to signal me to acknowledge that it was raining..?

It is a tad comical, kinda not really, but every car I had with a sunroof (’99 Grand Am, ’03 Cavalier, ’07 Impala, ’09 Mazda5, ’11 Fusion,  ’13 Fusion, and now ’15 Fusion).. at least once have I had this happen.

So, I wasn’t really surprised when I saw it. Because that’s just how it goes sometimes.

I snapped it, and someone commented, “Well guess it’s going to be that kind of day.”

But that’s where I disagree.

Yes, how you start your day often does set the tone; and yes, I need to slooowww dooowwwnn in my mornings and be more intentional with my time, not living lin a state of chaos and running around like a chicken with her head cut off… BUT it was just a quick 10 second part of my day.

I ran back into the house and grabbed a towel from the overflowing laundry basket, closed the sunroof, and proceeded with my ten-minutes-behind commute.

I then got stuck behind a school bus, stopping about 4 times on my route- and proceeded to get stuck for every single red light on the way to work.. but again, these are just trivial things.

Some people may have gotten frustrated, anxious, angry – I mean road rage in Michigan is real. I have seen people cuss and flail their arms and bang on the steering wheel. I promise you, this will not make the buses move any more quickly nor will it send a signal to the traffic light to change faster.

We put so much energy into things that we cannot control. (I mean, yes, I could have controlled closing my sunroof; something that could have been prevented). But once it was done – what could I have done? Wallow in self-pity and shame that I did it?

Honestly, no.

I laughed.

Shook my head at myself, rolled my eyes, and just laughed.

How often do you get upset about something that is far beyond your control? Or that cannot be undone? How often do we gt angry and upset about things that no amount of arm flailing and cussing will change the outcome?

I can guarantee every single day.

People get mad about the weather, mad about traffic, construction (this is the season in Michigan, it’s unavoidable).

I like the quote that you cannot control the direction of the wind but you can adjust your sails.

Remember that, always, when something less than ideal is happening to you.

You are only in control of what YOU are in control of.

That’s it.

Not the weather, not the traffic, not your friends or the people you meet, nor your parents, your kids, your boss. You can’t control anything at all except YOU and how you react.

When some less than ideal happens, you have the choice to expend as little or as much energy as you want. Personally, I prefer the option that is less emotionally draining- having a quick laugh, realizing you can’t change it, and moving on.