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A Good Day

What makes for a good day? When I say to my family as either I or they leave for work or school in the morning "have a good day" what do I really mean by that?

If I had to define it, I would be saying that I really want them to be satisfied with how they lived that day but I fear that sometimes when saying things like "have a good day" or answering "good" when I am asked how I am is sometimes solely an involuntary phrase- not necessarily the truth.

These responses we get so used to saying can be classified just as much of a lie as if I told someone I didn’t breathe air if I’m responding only out of habit and not because I’m truly answering the question. I could know full well that I’m not feeling well emotionally or physically but when someone asks me, I know I have replied "good" when I did NOT consider myself good.

Do we reply with the standard "good" just because we don’t want to take the time to go into detail about why we really aren’t "good"? Is it purely out of laziness that we reply with an answer that we won’t have to explain? I propose that when we ask someone how they, their day, family or job is and hear a "good" reply, we ask them what made that particular thing good.

A few days ago I asked a friend how he was and he replied "Eh not too great." For a second, I’m sorry to say, it puzzled me that he answered saying anything besides "good".  Then, with further thought, I was glad that he said how he really was. I came to appreciate (a lot) what he said. Not because I want him to not be too great but because his reply was honest and I believe we all should be that way.  If we really are having a good day then by all means answer good, but only weyou mean it.  Now for what that means to me . . .

I believe what makes a day good or not is how a person is fairing on the inside. I believe someone having a good day (most of the time) really doesn’t depend on environmental circumstances. A day can be full of bad environmental circumstances but how a day is depends on how you perceive and respond to those. So really, in my opinion, how someone’s day is and how they are doing is essentially the same question.
I think instead of complaining about having a bad day when we feel like we’ve had one and thinking there is nothing to do about it, we should instead review what kind of thoughts, actions and responses we’ve put forth and think about the fact that how our day is, is really determined by those.

Even if we have everything we love taken away, environmental circumstances don’t have enough power in themselves to control how we see things at the end of the day. They can if we let them, but if we start, end and live each day with the disposition that there is hope, (for those of us that have hope) how can there really be such a thing as a bad day? Some may be worse, but I believe none are bad. As a wise man whose memorial service I recently went to said, "Every day is a good day. Some are just better than others."
So I hope you make today a better-than-others day and that I could encourage you.
-anna
 

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