Monday

Ever wonder why there are so many songs about Monday?

Monday, Monday -- Mama's & Papa's.
Monday Morning -- Fleetwood Mac
Blue Monday -- the New Order
I Don't Like Mondays -- the Boomtown Rats
And my personal favorite, Just Another Manic Monday -- the Bangles

I could go on. Search for "Monday songs" in Google and you'll see what I mean. They're all sort of similar, too. Nobody much likes Mondays, it seems. I'm totally on that bandwagon.

I also hate, though, that I wish my life away. Right now, I'm staring at a crazy calendar this week, and next week, I have to do all the usual end of the month stuff PLUS I have a trip on May 2 that even a healthy person would find challenging -- I go to Chicago, give three talks, then fly onto Seattle for a benefit concert that night. Now, I wouldn't miss either of these events for the world, but did they really have to be on the same day? Thanks to time zones, I can make them both, but boy oh boy am I gonna pay for this. Remember -- no food, either. But the fact is that, in my mind, there are three sets of time: Before trip, during trip, after trip. And I am living for after trip. That's more than two weeks away, and I'd just as soon skip over that whole time.

But no, that's wrong. I love talking to patients. And even more, a Mike McCready benefit concert, and a chance to see Mike and his wife Ashley, and a bunch of other West Coast friends and acquaintances, including Kris McFalls, the patient advocate for IG Living magazine and the newest Board member of Advocacy for Patients with Chronic illness -- this is going to be a great trip!!! I can't allow myself to wish it away.

Indeed, we can't allow ourselves to wish our lives away.

Normally, my Monday starts with a trip to the grocery store when it opens at 8 am. However, today, I have an 8:15 am meeting with a school (I'm on speakerphone), and it's not going to be fun. The school is immensely inflexible, and the parents are a bit . . . um . . . flighty? Unpredictable?

But mostly, Monday's stink because they're the farthest day from the next week-end. Like I said, though, I hate that I wish my life away, living for week-ends and dreading all that comes in between. Even though I love my work, I'm not happy about the volume, the stress, the cost, the need to raise money, my need to be the strong one no matter who calls with what problem. It's a lot of responsibility. And we are nowhere near hiring another lawyer -- not in this economy. But that puts it all on me, and that's really hard. And it seems harder on Mondays, when the whole week is laid out in front of me.

I am going to start trying to appreciate Mondays. Mondays are new beginnings. They are the starting point. Without Mondays . . . there would never be a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. On Mondays, if you hate Mondays, you hate the "now," and the "now" is the only thing really worth enjoying. If we are mindful of the "now," we don't have to distinguish "nows" by days of the week -- it's all just a "now." And the "now" is where we live. Even when the "now" is Monday.

I say let's try to enjoy every moment of our lives. We never know what moment will be our last. So let's appreciate what we have. Even if it's Monday. Jennifer