Today really sucked.

I knew it would.

I was already on the thin edge of my patience when the alarm went off. Since I can no longer blame things like that on PMS, menopause, or even the possibility of hair dye leaching into my brain, I decided the planets had aligned themselves in a manner guaranteed to twang on my last nerve; ergo, this day was gonna suck, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Mood Beams, by Adam Foster

The same outfit that seemed so great when I set it out last night looked like sackcloth and ashes this morning. My hair adamantly refused to do what I wanted.  The writing that looked really good last night now was utter drek. I took it as a personal affront  that the internet was down when I wanted to check the weather. The items on my List of Hates were multiplying like loaves and fishes before I’d even finished my Cheerios, and I heartily cursed my lot in life.

It wasn’t until I’d mentally cussed out the fifth dumbass person I encountered that an old saying began to tug at the back of my mind–something like “when you meet five flaming morons in a row, maybe it’s time to take a look in the mirror.”

I’ve always hated that saying, probably because it’s true.

My day didn’t suck because of my outfit, my hair, the balky internet or the other people. It sucked because I chose to put on the mental equivalent of corpse-colored glasses. Everything I saw took on that tint, and I was too wrapped up in my angst to yank the damned things off.

Moods just come and go, if I let them. It’s only when I decide to set up housekeeping in a particularly ugly one that things get out of hand.

I’m basically a harmless little critter, but today I remembered that I do have one super-power: the ability to make myself miserable with just a flick of my mind, and, with another flick, completely reverse the process. The decision is mine.

PS–The stuff I wrote last night really is good. Take that, corpse-colored glasses!

Photo credit: Adam Foster | Codefor via photopin cc