The Best Day of Your Life

I’m so behind in these Daily Om journal posts…. Last year I signed up for “A Year of Writing to Uncover the Authentic Self” – that’s where some of these question/answer topics come from – and this topic is Week 18. Hahaha. So clearly I’m absolutely powering right through it.

Although I have to admit I’ve been putting this particular one off for at least a month. Maybe two. The best day? The BEST? The VERY BEST DAY EVER? I’m not very good with absolutes; maybe it’s being a Libra and having to see both sides, maybe it’s my weird brain. But how do I know it’s the BEST? Couldn’t it be something more like, the best day, for me, at that point in my life? “They” say that the day you get married is supposed to be the best day of your life. What happens when it’s also, and it usually is, one of the most stressful days of your life? What happens if you later get divorced? Does the stress dampen the “bestness”? Does the divorce make it no longer “the best”? If my first marriage, my first wedding day, was supposed to be the best, what did that make my wedding day with Tim? Is the first one the best, or is the one that actually lasted the best? What does my wedding day to Tim mean now that he’s died and I’m a widow? Does widowhood negate the “bestness” the same way “getting a divorce” would? What if you give birth after trying for a long time to get pregnant? Is that not the best day because previously you’ve gotten married and getting married is supposed to be the best? I’ve wanted to go to Ireland and England for almost my entire life; I’m going to Ireland in a couple of months and England later this year. How do I choose my first day in one of those countries as better than the other? And how does either one of those crowd out any other day that might have already been the best?

I AM TELLING YOU I COMPLETELY SUCK WITH ABSOLUTES.

Here are the questions. I will do my best to answer them but …. man. I mean, the questions… they’re not even “tell me about the single most best day in your entire life” – it’s really just the TITLE I’m hung up on. How stupid is that?! Sometimes my literal-thinking brain just hears something and stops hearing everything after that. Like when the math teacher told me to pretend that, for this class, Pi meant 3.14. So the next year in math class I didn’t know what to do, because that new teacher didn’t tell me what to pretend Pi was.

• List 5-10 amazing days in your life. Allow your creative juices to really flow. Think of all the kinds of days that could be considered the “best.”

Any day as a young child being looked at with love and patience, being treated with encouragement as adults watched my brain grow.

Any day as a pre-teen or teen spent all day in a recliner or on a couch, reading a really good book that I couldn’t put down, and not needing to put it down because I didn’t have other, more pressing obligations.

Any of probably my first fifteen Christmases.

Any day that I’ve seen a beautiful sunrise or sunset.

Any day that I’ve had fun while traveling, and seen or learned something new about the place I’m traveling to.

Any day I get to love and be loved.

• Write about your very favorite day from the list above. Try to convey all the details and emotions you felt.

No. I can’t do it. I can’t make one more of a favorite than the other; they were all wonderful for different reasons.

• Is your happiest day and most fulfilling day the same, or are they totally different days? Compare and contrast the two.

I can’t. Happiest implies no other happy above that one, and most fulfilling implies no other day was equally as fulfilling. And that’s just not true. The levels of happiness and fulfillment could absolutely vary and/or be equal to others, depending on how old I was and what my viewpoints and dreams were at the time.

• What was the day you felt most useful? Tell us the story.

Every day that I’ve been there for someone in a hospital setting.

• Has there been a day where you felt like your dreams were coming true? Relive the experience.

All of them? All of my dreams at once? Well, I’ve not been down in a badger burrow being offered tea and cakes, so that’s a no, not all my dreams are coming true on the same day.

• What would your perfect day look like in the future? Think about from the moment you wake up until the time you go to sleep. Who is there? Where are you? What is the world like?

Lord, these questions. A perfect day is one where I wake up, there’s a roof over my head and the electricity works, there is enough food to get me through the day, I get to make some art and read some chapters and pet some animals, and none of my loved ones are sick or injured or have any of their rights taken away. Perhaps there is a peanut butter whiskey in there. And I get good cell phone service.

• Is there any detail from one of your best days that you could recreate in order to have more amazing days in the future? Bonus points for actually doing it and then writing about it!

We’re done here.