Like most Americans who grew up in the 70s and 80s, I’ve got a fair amount of song lyrics floating around my head. Today’s post is entitled “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around” after the Police song of that name. And I’ll admit, I had to Google it. I knew the lyric but had no idea that it was the song title. That’s a long one!

The reason it was on my mind isn’t because I’m such a big fan of Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner and his bandmates. It’s been a bit of a mantra for me today, as I’ve needed to reassure myself that everything is okay.

The past week has been a rough one. It started out with a bad sinus infection which launched itself on me about nine hours after I gave a talk. I woke up four hours before my alarm with a sore throat and swollen glands, and said to myself what most people would say (the French word for it is merde). I knew it would go right to the sinuses and sure enough, within four hours it did. I was laid out like a boxer who’s just been KO’d.

Fast forward to the next day, sitting in front of a PA. She says, “You’re wheezing a bit. You’ve got the beginnings of bronchitis.”

Greaaaaaat.

So, an antibiotic and some OTC meds ensue, and now I’ve lost almost a week of my life to hanging around getting better.

The relation to the song title above?

Well, the week of being sick didn’t end there. We’ve got a leaky roof that caused water damage to a downstairs wall. And a contractor came in last week to cut out a large piece of it, but the roofer hasn’t come to fix the roof yet. So now every time it rains – as it does every day in South Florida this time of year – it’s raining in my living room.

Oh, and there’s more. Today, on my way to the supermarket to get more OTC meds, I smashed the back end of my car into a trailer used by the maintenance men here. So there goes my $1,000 deductible.

How’s your month going?

All this to say, I’m all right. None of this stuff will kill me. These are clearly first world problems. And getting stressed about any of them will not expedite my getting well from my sinus/upper respiratory infection. So, it’s time to chill. And when stuff is coming down on you like this, it’s a good idea to make the best of what you’ve got.

Happy Monday!

It’s happened to the best of us, right? You have a great idea, and you really should write it down. After all, you don’t want to forget it.

But it’s well past midnight, and you’re in bed. In fact, you’re getting sleepy…very sleepy…your eyes are starting to —

Zzzzzz.

Upon awakening, you remember a whole lot of things: things you have to do today, things you have to move to another day. One thing for sure, though.

You don’t remember that great idea.

How Important Is It?

Just as you might have guessed, that happened to me recently. In fact, it was a great idea for today’s blog post.

But I was tired and I was stressed, and I was feeling lazy.

I didn’t do that. I didn’t write it down anywhere.

Today I got up and had some new assignments from a favorite client waiting in my inbox. Woo-hoo! Ready to make some more dough!

But…that blog post. I had to stop and think: what was I going to write about?

I had to ask myself, “How important is it? Is it worth getting upset?”

Nah.

Still…I thought it would come to me if I sat with it.

Forget Me Not

And you guessed it. No such luck. When I took a break from my client’s project, I switched over to create-today’s-blog-post mode. I figured I would just sit and meditate on it, and it would come to me.

It didn’t. Unlike the Forget-Me-Not, I did forget him…or her.

I thought about all the other things I’ve been speaking and writing about lately. I thought about book blog tours, video marketing, email newsletters.

Nope, it wasn’t that. Or that. Or that.

So here is a blog post for the day that’s like a Seinfeld episode – a post about nothing. Folks, I got nothing.

Except for the always timely admonition: “Writers, write it down!”