Bad Days Put into Perspective

Lately I've been having a lot of bad days.  Not horrible days.  Just bad ones.

The list of things that make the days bad are not unique.  They're the standard list of laments given by most people my age (at least most people my age working in an office):

My work is not interesting.

I'm not passionate about what I do.

I don't love where I live.

I've plateaued at work (and can't imagine continuing to do this for the next 40 years).

The husband and I aren't in sync on the timing of starting a family.

My office mate is noisy.

I want to be healthier but I don't want to give up my copious daily amounts of soda.

It's not as if the entire list weighs me down every day; however, on most of the recent days, at least one of them will pop up and make me grumpy.

Occasionally, when I'm in the midst of feeling sorry for myself during one of these bad days, I find articles like this:

http://blog.worldvision.org/stories/the-mystery-of-suffering/

It's written by a person that has been doing relief work in Somalia and contains the two pictures below.

I can't help but tear up every time I see the photo on the left.  I can't help but smile every time I see the one on the right.

It's amazing what a few dollars worth of food can do.  Not only do they look healthier, they look happier.  Well, she looks happier.  He looks like he's about to mug the camera guy. :)

It's hard to feel sorry for myself while looking at such a stark reminder of what a bad day really looks like.


Of course, this doesn't mean that I'm off the hook.  Their suffering doesn't exist as a prop that allows me to feel better about myself.  I don't think it's a message from God that I should shut up and be content with what I've got and where I'm at.  Instead, I see it as a gentle reminder that 'bad' is relative and that things are fixed by taking action.

Now, if I just knew what action to take, I'd be all set.....