Charlie had a really good day about four years ago. Charlie is our little rescue dog that is no particular breed and is as ugly as the day is long. If he were in the animal shelter, I have no doubt that many potential adopters would pass him by, having no idea of the treasure he really is. We didn’t ask for Charlie on that day four years ago, but when his owner decided he no longer wanted him and unceremoniously dumped the puppy in a ditch, Charlie’s worst day quickly evolved into his best day ever. Within five minutes of his abandonment, he was riding to a new home in the floorboard of my tenderhearted daughter’s car, shivering with fear before tentatively making his way up to the console to be near his trusted rescuer. He was completely oblivious to the life shift that had just occurred, but he was living out his “one day,” that unexpected day when a downward spiral suddenly rights itself and all is well with the world. In fact, all is much better with the world.
I’m thinking that my one best day might be when the Publisher’s Clearinghouse van pulls into the driveway. Or it could be when the next billion-dollar lottery numbers are announced and I have every single one. My best day wouldn’t even have to involve money, although that would definitely make it a good day.
Charlie came home to backyard playmates and a private kennel that quickly evolved into shared space in a doghouse the size of an outdoor storage unit, lit by a heat lamp during the winter and cooled by deep shade in the summer. He plays all day, never misses a meal, and sleeps well. I imagine him and his friends sharing a game of cards in the lighted house on long winter nights and wandering out onto the covered porch with a cup of coffee each morning. He is definitely loved and appreciated and pampered now, although he was never that in his former life. And it all started on that one day when all was lost.
Joseph probably thought his day was going badly when he woke up in the dungeon prison yet again. He didn’t own anything and he had no family. His brothers had sold him into slavery and watched without remorse as he trudged away with the desert caravan to who knows where. But on this day, on this one day, he was called to interpret Pharaoh’s dream and ended up moving from the dungeon to a high-rise penthouse of the ancient world. In fact, he ended up controlling much of the ancient world, including his destitute brothers who were reduced to begging him for food. I’d have to say that was a good day. In fact, it was Joseph’s “one day.”
Things change for the worse too, of course, with unwelcome early morning or late night phone calls that change your life forever. Unexpected diagnoses and unimaginable losses can, and often do, cause good days to go gray in an instant. But that happens so often that it’s incredibly important to look for those fewer days when wrong is righted, when gray becomes multi-colored.
Charlie’s worst day was turned around in just a few minutes. But most of those “one days” are only recognizable in hindsight and some don’t really change a life much but are well worth remembering. Waiting behind an incredibly slow minivan in the Jack’s drive-thru one day, I was stewing about the wasted time and muttering to myself about the untold numbers of hungry little people in the van that the driver was probably feeding. I ate crow instead of fries though, when I got to the window to find that the driver of the minivan had bought my meal as well as theirs. The time she spent at the drive-thru window was in part spent paying for my meal. She changed my attitude that day and I’ll always remember that. It might not have changed my life, but it definitely gave me the nudge I needed on that one day. I know it at least temporarily made me a better person.
It’s not always what you get, but it’s often what you don’t get that changes the color of a day. When you don’t get the call with possible bad news, when the diagnosis is not what was expected, when you actually didn’t leave the stove eye on and burn down the house. I suspect a really good day would be if a jury didn’t find you guilty of something you didn’t do or if you were one of the few who was sorely tempted but didn’t buy a Titanic ticket before the unsinkable liner left port.
Patience is often involved if you expect to encounter the one day that changes your life. Waiting for the right spouse candidate. Waiting for the job that fulfills you. Maybe even taking charge of your future and making a plan that you just know is best for you, only to live through the dashing of those plans. Perhaps you’re limping along on the path you carved out for yourself when you’re redirected by a chance encounter that promises an even better future than the one you so meagerly envisioned. Patiently waiting for and asking for divine guidance is seriously underrated.
Count your blessings. Thank your lucky stars. Whatever your mantra, it’s clear that when left in charge we dream too small and expect too little and prepare not nearly enough, so we’re usually surprised when we get a windfall of good. One day can change everything. Just one day. One phone call, one encounter, one suggestion, one Publisher’s Clearinghouse van.
Personally, I’m waiting on the van.
