Many friends and family don’t like that little yellow smiley face!  I, however, love it, because when I see it, it reminds me that my choice is to have a great day, or to have a blah day.  (the opposite yellow face with the frown and the tongue out.)

Hopefully, we will be surprised and happy at the way today turns out!  And able to accept the things that aren’t much to our liking.  There is so much at stake, really.  A few weeks ago, I had to call our insurance company about an unpaid bill for last June when I had the last hip replacement.  I could hardly remember I had the darn thing and was still fighting with Kaiser.

I had first dealt with a rude and creepy young man at the facility who had been unpaid.  He seemed to delight in making me feel like a deadbeat.  He had no excuse for the fact that it had been almost a year before I received the first billing.  After hanging up with him, I was ready for a fight.  I dialed Kaiser’s number and then went through a five-minute conversation with a robot.  Finally, I screamed into the phone, ‘I want a human being!’

That is when Mildred came on the line.  She must have sensed I was beyond rational discussion, because the first thing that came out of her mouth was ‘I would like to help you resolve this in any way I can.’  I felt like someone had picked me with a needle and all the hot air escaped before I could explode.  She completely disarmed me.  I was able to provide her with an explanation of what I needed without raising my voice or bursting into tears, which was very possible at that point.  It turned out that it was their fault the bill hadn’t been paid yet.  She promised they would do so as soon as the creditor provided them with some IRS number.

My point is that one little maggot used his customer service job as a chance to bully people, and the lovely woman from Kaiser was serious about getting results for her customers.  I wondered how their day would go after that.

My friend, Betty is a good one to bounce ideas off of.  We were chatting away last week when it occurred to me that what we had uncovered was that a bunch of unrelated, small annoyances had taken place.  They were inconsequential alone, but together, they had the power to undermine my self-confidence.  I really felt like crap.  Then, the wisdom of King Solomon came to mind; ‘The little foxes spoil the vines.’  And further, it wasn’t just the string of incidents that were so bothersome, but my reaction to them.

So today, I choose to ignore the negative, embrace good, refuse to allow myself to take offense,(within reason now, let’s not get crazy here,) and say to hell with the rest!

Have a great day!