A Good Day

Have you ever had “one of those days?” You know the kind I mean. It’s the kind of day that Judith Viorst wrote about in her children’s book, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day.” Gum in hair, plain white sneakers, railroad train pajamas and lima beans all play into a pretty rotten day for poor Alexander, whose hoped-for solution involves moving to Australia.

Viorst wrote the book in 1972, and it has taken more than forty years for it to hit the silver screen with a movie of the same title. I’ve only seen the trailer so far, but it will be in theaters on October 10, and may be worth a visit, if only because we can all identify with Alexander.

Like Alexander, the bad days come our way from time to time and tend to get out attention, but we may be less likely to stop and say, “It’s been a good day.”

Sometimes the good day comes in the form of good news. Friends are expecting a baby. Our child is chosen to be student of the month. Aunt Elsa comes home from the hospital.

A good day can be marked by the tastes of a new season, such as the winter squash so plentiful at the farmer’s market or the first sip of autumn cider. It also feels like a good day when our favorite high school football team hangs on to win a close game, as the Arrows did last week against Wooster.

The goodness of life can surprise us as well. I won a prize this week through a Facebook contest, and I am the proud recipient of twenty shots of the corn cannon at Honey Haven Farms. Just the thought of spending an afternoon at Honey Haven brightened my day, as did the designation of “winner.” It’s the little things . . .

Sometimes the goodness of life is evident in the accomplishment of what we’ve set out to do, such as running our first marathon or walking a 5K. I finished work on my latest book this week, an embellished tale about Eliza Duncan, the woman who named Massillon, Ohio. I felt like I’d given birth without the weight gain and stretch marks! It was a good day.

Conversation with a dear friend, another part of a good day, reminded me that goodness exists even in the midst of what appears to be a Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad day. Eleanor Porter demonstrated that possibility with her character Pollyanna, a girl facing difficult circumstances. Pollyanna decided to play the “glad game,” looking for something to be glad about in every situation. A little syrupy, perhaps, but definitely an improvement over a life of despair.

In a more profound way, Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl discovered a similar path. “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Speaking from his own experience in the concentration camps, he said: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

One other perspective on the nature of our days comes from Ignatian spiritual instruction, modeled upon the work of St. Ignatius through the Daily Examen. Father Dennis Hamm of Creighton University describes the Daily Examen as “rummaging for God, going through a drawer full of stuff, feeling around, looking for something that you are sure must be there.” A time of daily, personal examination looks for the presence of God over the course of our day, and reflects upon how we interacted with other people. This kind of regular introspection allows us to review our day with gratitude, to choose one feature of our day and pray from it, and to look toward the day ahead with intention.

It’s easy to label a day as good or not-so-good, with a Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad day thrown in from time to time. But what life continues to teach me is that we can find goodness within each day if we’re open to seeing it. Might the blessing of good days be yours.