No Grumbling, Part 2

Yesterday, I posted about my intention to not complain or grumble during the month of December.

Today, I discovered that this challenge might be harder than I expected.

I consider myself a fairly positive, glass half full kind of person.  I tend to look on the bright side, to find the silver lining in most situations.  When I decided to give up complaining for Advent, I really didn’t think it would be that big of a deal.

By 10:20 this morning, I was already trying to bargain with myself about why THIS circumstance was worthy of complaining and grumbling.  I’m pretty sure my face looked like this one of the Grinch.

I had a 10:00 appointment this morning.  This was a very important appointment with someone who I have been meeting with regularly for a number of years.  I have found that this person is not necessarily a morning person and she is often late when I have the first appointment of the day, which is at 10:00.  Because it was a rainy morning and she is often late, I didn’t feel too badly when I arrived at 10:05 and couldn’t find a parking place.  By 10:10, I was seated and, as predicted, she was not there.  By 10:20, I was ticked.

As I noticed myself getting grumbly with the employees in attendance, I stopped and remembered that I had decided not to complain.  But she was 22 minutes late!  How rude, how inconsiderate!  I am a busy person and our appointment was at 10.  She ALWAYS does this and its not fair!  Poor me.

In all honesty, my very important appointment was actually just a hair appointment  Perhaps this was in that category I mentioned of merely annoying or mildly inconvenient?  And it’s Christmas.  And I really prefer to be joyful.  So I decided to get over myself and be gracious instead of snippy.  And believe me, I can DO snippy!  The good news is that I can also do gracious.

When she arrived around 10:25, she apologized with her arms full of poinsettias. She had stocked up on Christmasy things to decorate and food to share because they were celebrating someones birthday later that day.  And she couldn’t find a parking place either.  And it was rainy.

It made me laugh how quickly I had tried to “justify” my complaining and grumbling.  I had a right to be angry, didn’t I?   But what fun is that?  And really, what good did my momentary grumpiness do for anyone?  Frankly, when I made the decision that I didn’t have to be mad about this inconvenience, I felt somewhat relieved.  I could just decide to let it go and choose to enjoy my morning instead.  Yes, I suppose I had a right to be angry, but I also had the option to choose otherwise.

Instead, we had great fun talking about how we spent Thanksgiving and our upcoming plans for Christmas.   And, most importantly, my hair looks great, thank you very much for asking.

No grumbling this December, with no excuses?  Are you up for the challenge?  Let me know if you decide to give it a try as well!