“When things go wrong, don’t go with them.” I have always thought that Elvis Presley quote to be somewhat puzzling. How does one ‘go’ with wrong things? And where would one go anyway? Well, I have realized that the quote is really talking about one’s thoughts. When everything is falling apart, spiraling down, becoming darker and murkier, and it looks like there is no light in the tunnel, you must not allow yourself to keep going in that direction. You must find something to hang on to, something that helps you stand on solid ground and navigate through the difficulty. We tend to follow our thoughts – whether they are positive or negative. It is our thoughts that will carry us upwards or downwards, and the choice of which way we will go is of course ours.
The past few weeks have been rather difficult for me. And it is that falling apart and spiraling down that has tested my patience and grounding. I am an over thinker and my thoughts are always what pull me down or lift me up, with a little overwhelm and overwrought in there for good measure. Lately I have not had all fine moments. There have been conversations in which I have screamed at a random person only doing their job as scripted at the other end of the phone line, be it not very humanly or compassionately. My nerves are stretched between my youngest child who is suffering tremendous anxiety with school and life in general, my middle child who seems to be able to weather every storm and has glided silently through his hectic end of Senior year schedule of events and milestones with a calm akin to the peaceful sea at dawn, and then there is my daughter… the 1:00 a.m. call from France telling us that she was ok, but that she had been attacked and robbed – credit cards, identification, cell phone all gone. I am trying so hard to find that lifeline that will stop me from falling into the pit of things gone wrong. But it is hard. And just when I think things have leveled out and the ride will be less bumpy, something else happens. Just for some comic relief, my refrigerator died and who can possibly make a decision as important as buying a new refrigerator in the midst of all those things that have gone wrong.
And I am so tired. And when you are tired everything feels just that much worse. All of my emotions are heightened. Everything is a big deal. Everything bothers me. I told my husband that I hated the world we lived in. Like I said, not all fine moments. The other shoe always drops so to speak, and another problem weighs on my heart. And then I find myself struggling to not go with the things that have gone wrong, the things that are sad, frustrating, and stressful,
and that make life difficult at that precise moment.
I try so hard to not to let the ‘bad’ things steer my thoughts, and instead find the beauty in the day. The incredible sunset, the great vista from the beach, even the way the light shines through the leaves and branches as they gently rock in the breeze. Those are the “good” things, the “right” things, the blessings – the things that make you take a deep breath and smile and appreciate life. Why not say, “When things go right, go with them!”
