Su Penn wrote:
A couple of months ago, my four-year-old and I had been wrangling all
day—we just couldn't get into each other's groove. He was fussy, I
was impatient, he was whiny, I was cranky. We were struggling and
struggling. Finally, it was time to cook dinner, which he always
likes to help with. I got out whatever ingredients I needed, and he
pulled his stool over to the kitchen counter, and we started
measuring and stirring and slicing. I was standing half behind him,
and he suddenly leaned his head back against my chest and said,
"We're having a good day, aren't we? I like cooking with you. We're
having fun. We always have fun." It transformed the whole day for me
to hear that he was experiencing it so differently—or that that
moment of cooking together had redeemed the whole rotten thing.
You've talked before, Sandra, about this idea of thinking about
moments instead of days and it has maybe not changed my life but it
has changed a lot of my days. I used to decide by, say, 11 a.m. that
we were having a "rough day." Anybody ever heard of a self-fulfilling
prophecy? Now, no matter how rough the moment gets, I remind myself
that the next moment is a whole new chance at something good. And
it's amazing how often magic comes two minutes after I was thinking I
was going to have to chuck the whole thing and go back to bed.
—Su Penn
SandraDodd.com/badmoment
photo by Shawn Smythe Haunschild
