Never judge a day by it's morning

For the last fifteen years, on or off, my family has spent our spring break at Fort Myers Beach with my parents. Early on, when the kids were younger my brother and sister and their families came down too. This is the kind of trip that you wait all year for. Not just in the deep of winter, but through the summer too. Honestly, the longing starts on the long ride home!

You have to understand, this is the kind of vacation where your hardest decisions are do I read my book lying on the beach chair or do I just take a nap on the beach chair?  The weather in southwest Florida in March is pristine - cobalt blue skies, low to mid-eighties and a nice breeze in the afternoon. It's something you can always count on. Once in the first fifteen years it rained during the day. Once.

Our week this year started off great. Sunday was typical sunny beach weather. However, Tuesday the wind shifted from the north and stayed that way through Wednesday.  We knew what was coming. We didn't even need to open the AccuWeather app on our phones. A cold day. A non-beach day. Not what I had ordered for the week, that's for sure.

Sure enough, Thursday morning came in at 47 degrees!  We came down here to avoid that kind of temp!  I think the kids were a little depressed. Annie wanted to paddle board Thursday - too cold for that. Wendy wanted to sit in the sun again, too cold for that. What do you do at the beach when it's 47 outside????

You know the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover"?  Well, I offer a new one, "Never judge a day by it's morning". Thursday turned out to be one of the best days we had at the beach in fifteen years. By 1pm, the temperature was almost 60.  After the cold start, that felt great. The kids headed to the beach. By 3pm, the temp was almost 70. Not a cloud in the sky and very little wind.

By the time the day was over everyone got a chance to do what they wanted, Annie paddle boarded and Wendy sat in the sun. It turned out to be another beautiful southwest Florida day. Exactly what we ordered!

So why did we doubt?  Why did we get discouraged?  I think this happens to us more often than we think. We get to work, read our first email and think here we go again. We open up our Fiacebook and think this can't be happening!  We allow that first test of the day set the tone for the whole day. We get discouraged right away and give up on the day.

That's a terrible way to live. Letting the first moment of the day define us and our day. We need to remember that our day is what we make of it. Not what our circumstances make of it.

Heading back to work this week, I'm going to take a little different attitude to that first email of the day. I'm going to remember that there are 24 hours in a day (yes only about 17 that I'm awake!) and that first 10 minutes will not define me!  And if the day doesn't begin well it's up to me to make it end well.