Having a bad day? That happens. Having a bad week? Well, that happens, too. But it’s up to us if we allow it to make our days or weeks really bad, or if we take it as an exercise towards increasing our resilience.

That Monday (10/15) started like any other Monday, like any other week. Wake up, go running – except not because I injured my ankle that Sunday, so let’s just stretch and have a nice cup of coffee… except not because coffee started to do weird things to me lately… ok, maybe it wasn’t as normal of a Monday as always. But it was still fairly similar to any other Monday.

Wake up the kids, make their breakfasts, make their lunches and snacks, forget about my breakfast because it’s almost impossible to feed the three of them and get them ready for school while still being able to look after myself. Never mind, I’ll buy some breakfast at school.

Drive everyone to school, including myself, have a fairly normal day at school, drive home, look for cheap flights. Go get the kids. Notice that I misplaced my headphones somewhere.

Pick up the kids from their school, load them into my car, start the car… except not. Not even a fart. The car is quiet, without any life, non-functional.

Break my only two weeks old phone when putting away the jump-start cables (which didn’t help, it’s not the battery).

Walk home a little over a mile with three little whining kids. Look like a Christmas tree when carrying their three backpacks and my own bag.

And, finally, two days later, find my headphones… in the parking lot of my school, driven over by cars so many times that it’s almost impossible to identify them. I’ve had them for about a month. They were NOT cheap (think of me finally getting Bluetooth headphones so that I didn’t have to bother with all the cables while running, skating, or climbing).

Broken car, broken phone, destroyed headphones. Here go all my overtime work money.

Thursday approaches and it’s the day of my MRI scan. Yeah, had some “great” things happening to me last week, that’s why I’m here. Nonetheless, at least the people here are very nice. Before that, I manage to help a classmate of mine get through some of his sh… stuff. How come I’m all smiling and supportive and a life guru when I feel like falling to the ground and throwing a fit myself? And still, the way the sun filters through the leaves fluttering in the breeze makes me just simply happy.

It’s the simple little beautiful things.

Friday, I get the results for the MRI. Could be better, but well… could be much, much worse, too.

On Saturday, I invite my friend over. We are supposed to study but well…

We turn all childish, toast marshmallows over a fire – and it’s the first time doing that for both of us – and just have a good time.

On Sunday, I wake up into the foggy day and spend the morning in our garden on a swing, wrapped in my oversized hoodie and a blanket, reading a book and thinking about how wonderful life is.

It’s very rare for me to allow myself to relax like this, and without feeling guilty about “not doing anything important”, and I know it. I soak in the calmness of the fog and the muffled sounds. It seems like the world decided to be quiet today. And then it comes to me;

Doesn’t matter what happens or how hard it is,… it’s a miracle that we’re here. Think of how many “coincidences” had to happen since the birth of the Universe for you to be here, you the way you are, you as yourself, this unique, beautiful human being.

I watch the fog lift and the first sunrays battle their way through the clouds to tickle my skin. Millions of dewdrops shimmer in the grass and on the petals of the last flowers that are still around before they melt into autumn and winter.

I don’t go to church. I don’t go skating. I just sit there with my book, enjoying the cold and the sun and every single moment that goes by.

It almost seems like if the past week happened to somebody else. But I know that it happened to me and that it all is part of me now, making me my real self, making me a tiny little bit stronger but more understanding, accepting, helping my empathy to go one little step farther, teaching me a tiny little bit more about how to help people who are having their bad days.