Amazing Grace. Kind of.

A young friend posted some advice I really like on Facebook. "If you work really hard and are kind, amazing things will happen." I like it, but it sounds like an awful lot of effort.

I'm not saying I don't buy into the hard work and kindness thing, but let's get real; sometimes no matter how committed you are to busting your butt and smiling your way through it you just end up banging your head against the wall and that can take the wind out of your sails, to put it mildly. Although, come to think of it, it's true that amazing things usually happen. Amazing as in wtf? Amazing just isn't always good.

So I think I'm going to ease into my new found (or maybe newly rediscovered) philosophy and aim for kind of hard work and trying hard to be kind. Same words, different order, more or less indistinguishable. It's like Tokyo and Kyoto; same letters, different order. Both capitals of Japan at one time or another, more or less indistinguishable. (I wonder if there's any such correlation when they're spelled out in Japanese.) Anyway, compared to sitting around on my ass and watching mold grow in my bread drawer -- watching the grass grow requires dragging my ass outside, which, these last few days, seems like an awful lot of effort -- just about anything I do will more than qualify as kind of hard work. And compared to snarling at anyone who attempts to talk to me, just about anything I do will more than qualify as trying hard to be kind. 

This morning, I have already begun my quest for the good kind of amazing. I resisted the temptation to roll over and play dead when the dog woke me at four, and instead not only got out of bed but made it. I overcame the urge to step around the growing pile of clothes on my bathroom floor and sorted through it all. I've even replaced some light bulbs, and it's not yet six o'clock. If that's not working hard, at least kind of, I don't know what is.

As for trying hard to be nice, most normal people aren't awake yet, but I said please and thank you when I got my coffee in Starbucks and didn't growl at anybody when they unlocked the doors forty-five seconds past five o'clock. A Herculean effort, if you ask me. And I got plans. I'm going to respond to emails I've ignored and texts I've forgotten, and I'm going to give a thumbs up sign to just about everything that shows up on my Facebook news feed. If that's not kindness, I don't know what is.

We'll see how all this pans out. If anything quasi amazing in a good way happens, I'll kick things up a notch and start putting in some real effort. Maybe stop job hunting in my underwear and actually get dressed and pay attention. Make things happen instead of hoping for a miracle. Hmm. It's a concept.

The kindness thing might be a bit more of a challenge. A fellow Starbucks morning regular just told me the forecast for tomorrow is something nobody has ever attributed to me: pleasant. Ouch. And he sees me at my best time of day.

I'm just not going to let stuff like that get to me. I'm committed to kind of hard work and trying hard to be kind, and I'm remaining optimistic about the good kind of amazing. I told him to go screw himself, but I said it with a smile.