Monday, September 17, 2012

Day 261; Happy as a Clam to Do Something New


Happy As A Clam to Do Something New

Keep reading; it's just henna
After reading this, I hope you will have things to do, places to see and people to meet, so I will just get right to it. Doing new things is a great way to create happiness in your life; it also helps beat back frustration and anger.
Yesterday, I got in my van to run a few errands, but the car wouldn’t start. I immediately laid out a three way course of action for short term and long term possibilities. It turned out that the short term goal was all that was needed which is a good thing because the long term involved a new car.
My jumper box was of course missing, but my manager Jeanine was Jeanine-on-the-spot and came right over to assist me. Plan two would have been going to rent a car since our repair shop was closed, the kids had to go to classes and I was leaving town.
Neither of us had ever jumped a car, but we’d seen it done and I could read. It’s a good thing I didn’t skip too many of Mr. Prado’s Spanish classes because the directions were only in Spanish.
I was elated when I heard the engine start so we kicked into part B of phase one; which was to get a new battery. The repair shop was closed, but Walmart is always open and it turned out that this was where the last battery had come from.
The battery had one month of warranty left and I didn’t owe a dime. I smiled until I heard that it would take two to three hours to get to it. Then I remembered that I had a book and smiled again.

Jeanine smiled and said, no worries, we can go and do something new.
So I introduced her to the flee market; the one we always pass but never go to. I’d been before with my mother and my sister; who both love to walk and just look. My mother used to say, “Let’s go not shopping.”
Jeanine and I were having a great time looking at things we didn’t want and then we came to the henna booth. Jeanine had done it before and even has tattoos, but I had never done anything of the sort. She decided to have her hand done; a beautiful and intricate design and I stood by and watched.
Then I said to myself; “Try something new, you tell others to.” I did and smiled the entire time. I came home with a car that was running and my new body art.
This morning I laughed to myself about how in the past a car that didn’t run could have been a great deal of frustration. With only one day off, who wants to spend in at an auto shop, I would have complained. Instead, I was happy as a clam—which by the by, comes from the phrase “Happy as a clam at high tide,” because at high tide, there are no predators to attack.

Be you, be new, be happy.
Bertice Berry, PhD.

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