It's always something

This starts out kind of gross but stick with me if you can.

Yesterday morning I went outside for 2 minutes to put the trash toter out as it was trash day. 

When I came back inside, I saw that one of the cats had taken the opportunity to barf on the floor in the downstairs hallway. 

Thanks, cat!

So I went and got my paper towels, one wet and one dry, to clean up the small mess.

And then I saw another small smudge on the floor and took the opportunity to wipe that up too.

Obviously, this is just a tiny example of something that really only took one minute of my time, but it got me to thinking that I was able to take something that was a mild annoyance and use it as an opportunity to improve something else in my environment, even if only a small thing.

It reminded me of the old Gilda Radner character, Rosanne Rosannadanna, who used to say "it's always something.  If it's not one thing, it's another."

There will always be those little things.

So the question is, how will you respond? 

Will you get annoyed and let it trash your mood for an hour (or longer)?

Or will you just say "oh well," and clean up the mess and take an extra 30 seconds to leave it even better than it was before?

If someone is late for an appointment, can you find a way to use the extra time for something quick that needs to be done, or even take a few minutes to close your eyes and breathe or get a drink of water?  And as a bonus, even though we all know how annoying it is when they are late, figure out a way to have some compassion for them by thinking about what might have caused them to be late?

Or if you are trying to lose weight and your planned menu got messed up because some ingredient went bad in your fridge, or wasn't available at the store and you had to think of something else to do, can you take the opportunity to find something new and creative to do instead? Something you might not have thought of had this not happened?

And of course, there's this:

There will always be something that gets in your way or annoys you.

So do not wait for things to be perfect or even close to perfect to be happy.

Be happy now.

As for me, my hallway floor is a little cleaner (though admittedly not as clean as it could be) and I am grateful that I get to live with three cuddly rescue cats who rescued me at least as much as I rescued them.

What is in your way that could be a base for something better that you could build?