Good Days, Bad Days

When I was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis,  my co-worker and friend Retta Lou said, “You will have good days and bad days.”

I remember answering, “I want all my days to be good.”

But that’s not how life is. We can’t have all good days, and we’re lucky if we don’t have all bad days. Actually, most days are a mix of good and bad.

Today is a case in point. It started with something bad. Dennis discovered that overnight a predator, probably one of our neighbor’s cats, got the baby cardinals that hatched in a nest below our kitchen window. Now the nest is empty and deserted, just as I had feared.

But then, something good happened. Our friend Dick called to say he would soon arrive at our house with a load of horse manure. While this may not seem like a good thing to some folks, to gardeners a load of manure is a gift from the gods.

Then a bad thing happened. My left shoulder, which had been stiff and sore all day, dislocated. Popping it back in place was, well, very painful.

Next the weather service announced that we were under a tornado watch. Damaging winds and hail were expected. But this storm turned out to be a good thing for us, because the storm system brought only a nice little rain, just what the yard, garden and perennial beds needed.

Good day? Bad day? No, just another day of life, a grand and interesting mix of events.

Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer