Something Dandy

When someone says "today I went on a bike ride, stopped to pick some daisies, and brought them back to cheer up my living space," typically the hearer pictures something whimsical and cheerful. The sun was probably shining. The person was probably in some dapper outfit and tidy brown shoes, in a wide, open field. The bike ride was lovely. The daisies tall and strong, and ready to adorn a well-set table in a mason jar.

However, today was a simple example of how often that's not how things are. I found these daisies after a sweaty day, a little comment that sent me over, and a frustrated bike ride in flip-flops and a bad hair day.

I had slipped away on my Schwinn because a family member made that one comment that put a little dent in my happy mood. I took out my frustration on my bike pedals. I resented the heavy air, I resented that I had encountered another issue with that person, I resented that my flip-flops kept slipping off my pedals, I resented the last four months, and the hills my wheels had to climb. I turned down a gravelly, grassy road that I hadn't been down in a while, letting my mind and emotions cool down as my body heated up.

I reached the end of the road and, somehow, after I turned around, the trip back seemed a bit prettier. I hadn't noticed the daisies along my route, but I stopped. And I picked them as furiously as I could.

I rode a little while longer, wondering what I was going to do with my pathetic handful of floppy little daisies. But I brought them back, to the same place I had that little spat, and gave them a home inside two mini Fanta cans I had filled with water.

Sometimes that's how it goes. Sometimes you don't find daisies along your perfect journey. Sometimes you find them while your grumbling against your family, furiously pedaling to get away from everything; cursing the shoes you wore and the fact that your Spotify lost service. Those days can still have something dandy in them.

What are you gonna do with that "something dandy?" Are you going to ignore it? Keep it? Or share it with the person you're most frustrated with? let it fix what caused your day to "go south" in the first place?

Don't forget to see those little pieces of "something dandy." Because they're always there. Like the little rainbows that hit the wall when the sunlight hits your watch, they come up out of nowhere. Unexpected. And so small that you could always miss them.