I'm Not Going To Say That Anymore

Tonight as I was nursing the wee one in preparation for bed, I smiled and relaxed into my pillow seat and thought “Today has been a good day.”

And then I thought, “That really doesn’t mean anything, does it?”

Because what I meant by it was that, unlike the previous days of the last week, the wee one slept well between his feedings at night and he was happy and easy through the day. He was making the best sounds all day long and his sister noticed, “Baby Brother is making noises!!”  And this same toddler, despite being christened a “Spitfire” at mass on Sunday, was actually fun to be around. Plus, to see her face when the wee one smiled at her today… priceless. True love, right there.

They call me "Spitfire"

And while all of these things are true and good, to describe my day as “good” just renders them meaningless - drab and gray. If I really had to be limited to just one word, it would mean more to say that my day was “easy”.  But it would be better yet to say it was “full of sweet moments” or even just “family life at its best”.

It got me thinking that maybe even saying my day was “bad” does the same thing. That is, it puts the day into the circular bin of meaninglessness. “Hard”, “tiring” or “bone-crushingly monotonous” communicates much more and gives meaning to the events of the day, while saying it was “bad” robs it of any significance. The only thing I want to do with a “bad” day is forget it. And that would be a waste of the day that was given to me, a day “that the Lord has made”.

So I think I’m going to stop using those words. I want my days to have meaning and I don’t want to forget them.  Plus, I know there are times when what I think is “bad”, God is actually using for my Good; so really, what do I truly know about good and bad?  I’ll leave the assigning of those labels to the One who really knows.