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I admit, I titled this Crap Happens knowing full well that my mother will say something to me about it. Crap is not one of her favorite words and she tried to cure me of it, but I continue to rebel. Sorry, Mom. Some things can only accurately be described as crap.
(Hey Mom, at least I’m not using the F word or the B word that you despise, though neither of those are swear words either. š)
I’m dealing with a little crappy situation for over a week. I accidentally cut my finger while I was slicing bread and got super distracted for just a moment while talking to a kid. Muscle memory kept the knife moving when it shouldn’t have been. Ugh, so much blood comes from finger injuries! (My mom will also fuss at me about this too. You are never too old for your mom to fuss at you when you do stupid and unsafe things with a knife. My beautiful and very sharp new knife was a Christmas present from her, she’s going to really hate that.)
Since the finger-cutting incident, I have been trying to continue my business of writing blog posts, emails, social media posts, creating planners and printables … all with this beautiful bandaged finger. Every word I try to type with my left hand has phantom letters added by the bandage. I keep having to go back and edit every line while I type, which is so time-consuming. Let me give you an example of my typing without the editing, for reference:
Here I am tryping witgh my b eautiful bandafged fignger. It is so easy tro type with a b andage in the way. I lov e all the extra letrters and random spaces added to what I trype. This is so much fgun!
Cutting my finger while I was slicing bread (and super distracted for just a moment while talking to a kid), is just a crappy thing. My finger will heal, everything is going to be okay. It is just a brief nuisance for me to endure.
Sometimes we experience devastating loss or trauma. These things aren’t just little crappy events, they can be life-altering and extremely painful. This advice is not about the big things that take a lot of time where healing takes a lot of time.
There is a separate classification of things that I refer to has crappy things. Just little disappointments and general frustrations. I think we can have a lot of control over how we handle these things. Do we treat them like devastations? Do we let them take over our day? Do we let them ruin our plans? I hope not.
Crap happens all the time to all of us. (I think we could just call it life, really. Even though they happen often, they really stick out to us at the time.) Here are some examples:
- Our kids get sick on a busy day and we have to cancel a ton of important appointments.
- We get stuck in unforeseen traffic and are forced to be late.
- We break our foot a few weeks before Christmas and need to alter plans, activities, and expectations.
- We find out some of our friends have been leaving us out of stuff. People who we thought were our friend, maybe actually aren’t.
- There are no lanes open at the grocery store and we have to take our very full cart through self-checkout.
- We sit at a doctor’s office and wait for 2.5 hours, some of that time in a paper gown, for only 10 minutes of actual appointment time.
- We slice our finger like an idiot.
This list was me just brainstorming stuff that has happened to me. I imagine you could probably add some more examples!
So, how do we react when life gives us crapples?
First of all, I think it’s okay to allow ourselves to feel our feelings about it, to acknowledge that something crappy happened. Maybe it makes us feel sad, frustrated, annoyed, or disappointed. Take a minute, and validate your feelings.
But then, after you take a moment to acknowledge the truth and feel the emotion, it is time to let it go. Move forward, try to be flexible, and then do the best you can with the situation.
We can’t keep dwelling on the negative and expect to have a positive life!
Let me repeat, we can’t keep dwelling on the negative and expect to have a positive life. We may not be able to choose all the thoughts that come into our heads, but we can choose which thoughts to keep around.
Crap happens. Don’t let it ruin your life!
From my home to yours,
Mary
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I cut my fingers all the time using a sharp knife, a mandolin, scissors, you name it. I’ve actually had knives taken away from me while I’m in the kitchen. š So I feel your pain. I hope you heal quickly!
What I really want to know is what is the F word and the B word that your mom doesn’t like? All I can think of is fart and boob. Inquiring minds want to know. ššš
Well, you’re half right about the bad words, lol. F is correct. š¤£
I think I cut myself all the time too, but the knives are never this sharp so it usually doesn’t work so well!
Okay, Sweetie, I have to agree with your mom. I’ll tell you what I tell the kids on my bus when I hear that word come out of their young mouths: “Unless you’re talking about manure (we live in farming country), the “c” word is a swear word.” Then I tell them to replace the “c” word with the word “life.” It can easily mean the same thing.
Sincerely,
A grandmother who was raised before swear words were used on television.
She’ll appreciate the support. š And I am truly sorry to offend, but hopefully the message still transmitted. Sometimes we have to get over the little things that come up so we can live a happy life.