QUESTION THE STATUS QUO
The other day I took my husband to get a blood test, something very specific that required special vials and a centrifuge and what not, so we had to go to the hospital to have it done. I dropped him off at the door and went to park the car. As I walked from the parking lot to the facility’s waiting area, I passed a mom holding her toddler’s hand as they strolled. The boy had stopped and was executing a little happy dance, smiling, and putting on a show while the mom and a woman sitting on a nearby bench were giggling at his energy and enthusiasm. I got sucked into the moment, joy-filled as it was, and laughed along with them.
Ten seconds later, I entered the waiting area of the hospital and my joy bubble burst. The facility itself is state of the art: two-story, large windows looking out on a lovely garden, the sun energizing the waiting room through the lightly grey-tinted windows; colorful art on the walls; an all-around pleasant venue, yet everyone in there, with the exception of one of the women checking people in, sported a dour expression. In some cases it looked permanent, gloom lines (the opposite of laugh lines) had long ago formed around their down-turned mouths and eyes. The gloominess had spread to their bodies, the walls, the furniture, the ceiling until the very air had become sullen and ill-tempered. Perhaps I’m blowing it out of proportion because I’m sensitive to energy, but I don’t know if anyone else noticed the darkness in an otherwise beautiful setting besides me.
Now I’m sure every one of those people had a serious problem or they wouldn’t be sitting in a waiting room of a hospital on a gorgeous, sunny spring day, but I couldn’t help but wonder how they all might have been if for a moment they stepped out of their own lives, their myriad problems, their many unfortunate circumstances, and just breathed in the blue of the sky or the joy of a toddler dancing on the sidewalk.
Granted, the dancing boy knows nothing yet of sickness, or the Mueller report, of financial hardships or impossible deadlines, of navigating life in a 24/7 world, but what if we could take that exuberance that we had as kids, that joie de vivre, and hold onto it well into our twenties, thirties, the rest of our lives despite all the trouble around us. We may have a million horrible things happening at once, an incurable disease, an unsolvable problem, a despondency so deep you think you may never breathe right again, but the knee-jerk, Status Quo reaction of misery and despair doesn’t have to be your norm.
Question everything. Dare to think different thoughts, no matter how far outside the typical response those thoughts may be. Find your own light for yourself and everyone around you. There is always something to be joyful about, a reason to do a little happy dance. Today, go out and find it.
Today is Day 17 of the #AtoZ blog challenge. Happy Easter. Happy Passover. Happy Dancing. :0)
pamlazos 4.19.19
Green Life Blue Water 
Oh, this is why I must keep myself close to my kids. Their joys in the little things help keep me upright when everything else feels like a yoke upon the shoulders. I almost thought you were going to get into everyone ignoring the beauty around them because their little screens were on, but yeah–save for the maternity ward, hospital rooms are rarely a happy place.
Maybe they need more toddlers. 🙂
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Yes, more toddlers = more unbridled joy! When was the last time you had a sampling of that, eh? It’s so hard to come by as an adult.
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Yesterday, actually! I started a new job as a substitute teacher’s aid. Sure, I had to hang out with a kid who kept eating his own boogers, but we also had fun laughing over silly stories together. 🙂
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Oh my, good luck! As if you didn’t have enough young‘ins running around! ❤️
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Thanks! I know, buuuuut a gig’s a gig! 🙂
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Ay, that it is. Have fun with it!🥰
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Beautiful message 🙂
Ronel visiting with the A-Z Challenge music and writing: Only One That Fits the Q
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🙏🙏🙏
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We don’t take the time to do enough happy dances — we need to be more spontaneous and inhibited like children are.
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😍👌
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Quite right Pam. We have the freedom to decide how we respond to everything in the world – focusing on the doom and gloom doesn’t do anything good for anybody and simply adds to those lines of bitterness and the need to take anti-depressants – which makes the pharmaceutical companies ecstatic. Doing a happy dance at any time is a good thing – even if you just do one inwardly 😀
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😂😂😂 Happy Easter 🐣 Pauline.
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Thanks for your uplifting post, Pam. To the little ones, sharing space in the apartment complex where I live, I’m “the garden lady.” Their pure joy in discovering the beauty of plant life reminds me of our connection and place in the natural world. What a joyful place to do my own “little happy dance”!
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Aw, and what a good mentor you must be for future generations of environmental stewards, Rosaliene.🙏
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I hope so, Pam. Three of my former, little helpers have since left our apartment complex.
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Off to garden and save the world, I trust. :0)
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Might not have been that complicated Pam. They might have all just been waiting forever. You see the same look on the faces of people at the DMV.
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Teehee 😜 and yes, Ken, you may be right!
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I felt joyful while reading this Pam in spite of the gloom of the inner walls of the hospital. That downturned mouth can become a permanent fixture whereas a smile is instantly lifting! 🙂 Happy Easter and keep on dancing!
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Just picked up my girl from the train station. My son came home last night and my older daughter gets in this evening so I am doing a happy dance 💃 Susan! You have a lovely weekend. 🥰🥰🥰
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Find your own light for yourself and everyone around you.
Yes, yes. You said it so well. Happy Easter to you and yours. And now I’m off to do a happy dance…
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Yay, Ally! Happy day!🥰🥰🥰
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A lovely post. Happy Easter x
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You, too, my sister. ❤️
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Happy easter
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Thank you and you as well. :0)
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