How to get through a Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Day.

For kids growing up in the 70’s, Alexander’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day was a reading staple along with Where the Sidewalk Ends and Green Eggs and Ham.? Alexander’s troubles started the minute he woke up with gum in his hair and got progressively worse as the hours passed, capping off with a burned out Mickey Mouse nightlight and his cat choosing his brother’s bed rather than curling up with him.? Alexander drifts off to sleep thinking that life would be better in Australia, but the interesting irony is that the book circulated in Australia ends with life being better in Timbuktu.? And Timbuktu thinks life is better than America.? Go figure.

Wherever you go and wherever you are, you’re bound to have some Bad Days, if not Terrible and Horrible, No Good ones. I hate to admit that a number of Mondays while I was working in banking felt like this~ snoozing through the alarm, burning my tongue on coffee, running down to the wire to launch a Teams call with the glazed blue screen demanding a reboot which took 20 minutes and another 3 restarts.? Let’s just say my Outlook inbox didn’t improve my perspective for the week by 7:15 am on a Very Bad Monday. At least I could look at the retirement count-down clock and do the math that all this added up to some better life.

Spoiler alert: retirement has its share of Very Bad Days too.? Mine started with the garden, a sanctuary while I was working, providing gallons of fresh tomato sauce, beautiful slicing heirlooms with picturesque names like Giant Rainbow, Berkeley Tie Die, Green Zebra and Lemon Boy for Caprese salad. I planted fragrant basil, oregano, dill and chives, then the hot and sweet peppers, Ambrosia and watermelons, figs, nectarines and peaches.? Now that I’m retired, I went into this gardening season 100% confident this would be the Best.Garden.Ever. I could give it my full undivided attention and maybe open a fruit, veggie and flower stand on our little street.

Only not.? It’s been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad garden despite the additional time, care and attention I invested this year.? They say bad things come in 3s and this year started with a grasshopper population explosion.? Little seedlings make tempting amuse bouches for young grasshoppers.? Then nature turned up the heat to over 106 degrees for 12 consecutive days.? You know it’s hot when heliotropic sunflowers are cowering their burnt umber heads.? To add insult to injury, the ground squirrels could give Tom Cruise a run for Mission Impossible break ins, burrowing under the fencing to pull corn stalks down their holes and climbing the raised bed arbors like a jungle gym taking out most of the melons.

It’s the kind of devastating feeling I remember from those case of the Mondays at work.? The difference is I thought it would be different because I was making the work rules. Mother Nature reminded me of the best lessons I learned at work.

1. “Success is a journey, not a destination. The journey is more important than the outcome”~Arthur Ashe

2. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”~Teddy Roosevelt

The grasshoppers, scorching heat and ground squirrels didn’t undo the journey of planning, planting and nurturing a living garden, whether it thrives or not.? The honey bees love the drooping sunflowers and the tomatoes are showing resilience despite the heat.? The squirrels are doing their best to survive. Losing a few melons and cornstalks may be disappointing but certainly not a catastrophe.

My experience in navigating a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is to look for the lusters~ like the bees on sunflowers, the tomato’s resiliency and hard as it is, appreciate the ground squirrels’ tenacity.

Nature and work culture aren’t that different: we’re doing the best we can with what we have where we are. And that journey adds dimension and perspective to our lives.