Sometimes you wake up, start your day, and just feel like everything suddenly clicks.  This happens almost never for me.  But it happened to me today.  If I could, I would bottle up and sell the magic that allowed my morning to unfold nearly seamlessly for once.  Let me explain:

(1)  I managed to wake up on time, get myself dressed in work-appropriate attire, and shuttle the kids to school on time!

Seriously.  Look, here’s a ridiculous selfie that proves I am winning at not looking like shit in the morning:

The fact that I managed to leave the house this morning in something other than jeans and a sweater with holes in it (but it’s cashmere!) is definitely a sign that it’s going to be a good day.  I mean, I left the house yesterday morning in a suit and heels, but that’s because I was heading straight to a mediation and my husband was handling the kids for me.  Today is different!

(2)  I remembered not to parent other people’s children!

Did you know that food-sharing is a big no-no at school these days?  Well, if it’s not at your own school, it should be.  There are all kinds of food allergies rampant in our population of school-aged children, not to mention religious practices and nutrition preferences that means you should definitely NOT offer an extra string cheese to the kid sitting next to your preschooler at school breakfast.  I absentmindedly offered the string cheese to a sweet little girl who happens to be my three-year-old’s best friend at school, so it’s ok, right?  No, and what was I thinking?  She could have a dairy allergy, or her parents may just want to exercise some control over her nutritional choices.  So I retracted the string cheese, and while exactly zero people in the room seemed to care either way, especially the child in question, I win points for not substituting my own parenting for someone else’s!

(3)  I’m not having any suicidal ideations!

As I departed the school to go start my work day, it dawned on me that I was feeling really good today for reasons that seem really random, but may have something to do with the new medication I’m on.  The truth is, things got really, really, REALLY bad a little while ago.  Now, when I start envisioning myself driving off highway overpass bridges on my way to work, I recognize this as a sign that things are bad enough to make some kind of change.  Understand that years ago – hell, only months ago – I would have suppressed the feelings and continued on, because that was life as usual for me.  Learning that the usual thing is not necessarily the normal thing, the healthy thing, or a necessary thing was not the problem.  It was my acceptance of this fact, beyond just understanding it logically but then ignoring it, that I needed to learn how to do.