Return on Life: There's always a positive side. Really.

Today started out as "one of those days". You know, the kind that can make you wish you had just stayed in bed. The kind that usually result in a grumpy mood and nastiness to those around you.

It began as I went downstairs, on my way out the door for a meeting. I'd made it halfway down when my foot got caught in my pant leg and I came that close to taking the remaining steps headfirst. Instead, I just pulled a muscle in my back.

Then I drove to Panera Bread, bought a hot Ginger Peach Tea and sat down to wait for the other person to appear. Before I even took a drink of the tea, I knocked the whole thing over (fortunately away from rather than on me). It sure takes lots of napkins to sop up an entire to-go cup of tea.

When I left Panera, I stopped by the grocery store on the way home to buy a couple of items, including a bottle of balsamic vinegar. Made it home ok, got out of the car, picked up the bag with the balsamic vinegar, and dropped it on the garage floor (darn leather gloves). Smash! All that beautiful balsamic vinegar all over the place. And it's not even 10:30 a.m. yet.

You haven't lived until you've mopped your garage floor in 18 degree temperature, cleaning up a substance that's about the same color as the oil and dirt already there from the messy winter we're having. I'd have loved to have waited, but it's not supposed to warm up for a week, and although I love balsamic vinegar on my salad, that fragrance is definitely not a positive addition to an enclosed garage. A little too much of a good thing, I guess.

After finishing the mopping, and washing the other groceries that were covered with balsamic vinegar as well, I decided to just sit at my desk and touch as few items as possible, since they were bound to end up being spilled, broken, or at least just on the floor. Other than the usual fighting with the computer to get it to cooperate, it's calmed down since then, thank goodness.

Oh, and what could I possibly find to be good about the sequence of events from this morning? Why, I only whacked my head once on the car mirror while I was mopping! See, there's always a positive side. Really.

Return on Life: Remember that you're in charge

I hope you had the opportunity to hear President Obama's inauguration speech today. If not, be sure to listen to it soon. In part, it was a great reminder that each of us needs to contribute on our own behalf and that of others in order to achieve what we are truly capable of.

A recent newspaper column by Dr. Richard Shearer (January 14, 2009, Barbour Democrat, Philippi, WV) that made essentially the same point by observing the differences between "worrying" and "being concerned." Dr. Shearer gave examples of worry weighing us down while concern stirs us to action. Worry can cause us to freeze and take no action beyond worrying, while concern can help us think about how to deal with a failure, how to create a right out of a wrong, how to improve rather than get stuck in the negative.

Let's join President Obama in creating a nation of "doers", those who act out of concern, rather than a nation of "worriers" who do nothing to advance the situation. It takes each of us, individually, doing our part. Let's just see how far we can go!