Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 158

To be honest, today was one of the harder days I've had in a long time.  A whole combination of factors just came together to make it the sort of day when no matter how hard I tried, feeling positive was mostly beyond my reach.  It was the sort of day when a lot of the items on the daily 5 list are there more because I'm making the conscious choice to be thankful for them, than because they brought true smiles.  It's not true of all the items, but it is true of several.  And that's okay.  It's kind of the point - to choose gratitude in those moments too.  To believe that it still shapes my heart when my heart hurts too much to notice that gentle shaping.

so, here's today's daily 5:

1. Glancing at my "wall of smiles" as I got dressed for the day this morning, and especially noticing a photo taken of my former roommate and I by a waitress at a Peruvian restaurant in Toronto about a year and a half ago.  That evening was a bizarre one in that we had picked up groceries after a day of touring and were planning to cook dinner for ourselves in the home of our hosts who were out for the evening.  We ended up being locked out of their apartment (a tricky lock) and unable to reach them to find out the trick to the lock.  So, we walked.  We stumbled across a Peruvian restaurant and given how Peru has been on my heart for most of my life, couldn't pass it up.  The food was fabulous, and we followed it up with a trip to the drug store to pick up a newspaper and a magazine, and an hour in a coffee shop, eating really decadent chocolate desserts and enjoying our respective reading materials.  We eventually heard from our hosts, and got into the tricky apartment door.  What stands out for me is how relaxed I was - we were in a strange city, locked out, with a complete change of plans - all things that would stress me out.  Instead, I was very relaxed, we laughed, went on a sort of God adventure that culminated in a great evening and a great memory.  One that was especially nice to start out my day with today, given how the rest of it went.
2. starting to have a bit of a morning routine for the days that I have classes
3. making two different very tight bus connections today
4. finally beating a level on Angry Birds that I'd been stuck on for ages
5. eating an Almond Joy bar on the bus on the way home from a challenging appointment
6. stopping to pick up my version of comfort food - Vietnamese take out for supper tonight
7. helpful customer service when I had a problem with accessing some online banking tonight
8. a friend who knew what kind of day I was having and knew that I'd likely need to laugh quite badly and obliged by sending a whole slew of very snarky emails that succeeded in the nearly impossible task of getting me to grin on the bus after my very challenging day and appointment
9. getting a fun email thanking me for a package I sent as part of my goal to send "real" mail to people at least twice a month this year
10. getting notification that my student loan has gone through.  the amount isn't great, but it will suffice for now.  Now I just sign the forms and wait for the cheque to arrive.