Some Days Are Diamonds

You may have heard the song by John Denver:

Some days are diamonds
Some days are stone

Today was somewhat of a stone day for me. Murphy's Law was in full effect. It's one of the days you don't plan for and you hope not to see again for a while. Meeting after meeting, problem after problem. Ya, it was one of those days.

I've got a question for you - what do you do to get you through challenging days? Here's one thing I do: whenever my wife or daughter calls me (my son is only a couple months old) and leave a voice mail, after listening to it, I DO NOT DELETE. Why? Here's why:

By not deleting them, I have their voices on demand 24/7. Sometimes I just need to hear that special voice saying, "I love you" or "You're the best."

The voice mail system keeps older message for several weeks before automatically deleting them. So they'll eventually be deleted anyway.

This might sound silly but it really does wonders for me. It keeps things in perspective. Maybe this might not be your thing. Maybe it's just having a picture of your kids hanging on your rear view mirror. Maybe it's a photo on your desk. Whatever the case, I encourage you to have something in place so that you always have your loved ones with you.

So whether you have diamond or stone days , at least you know that as you cultivate a loving relationship with your family, the diamonds become more sparkling and the stones become easier to bear.

May your diamond days be many and your stone days few!

The Upbeat Dad