April 2, 2013 National No Complaining Day

"Go 24 hours without complaining (not even once!).  Then watch how your life starts changing."

I saw this quote several times today, when it occurred to me that it was a great topic for a blog post.  How many of us, in all honesty, can go through an entire day without griping about something, be it traffic, the weather, a co-worker, our kids, our weight...something?  But what is life without a challenge or two, so as I'm already in the midst of one challenge, why not another?  I am going to endeavor to get through tomorrow without a single complaint.

Who's with me on this?  What a great experiment!  Just as I found that being positive altered my world for the better, going even a day without a complaint should surely yield similar results!

There are a ton of causes out there these days.  World Autism day, Earth Day, Take your daughter to work day... something for everyone in all of the "days".  So why not a "No complaining Day"?  This is something every single person in the world can relate to!  You don't have to know someone who's been affected or go out and pick up trash or try to keep your twelve year old daughter occupied through one of your work days.  All you have to do is stop yourself every time a complaint might be uttered.  It reminds me a bit of a book I read as a child (and yes, I still have it in my collection).  It is called "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Magic" and features a woman who helps cure children of lying, not listening and a variety of other maladies in a somewhat humorous way.  The child who lies spits out little black clouds which hang over his head and follow him everywhere.  When he finally learns to swallow the lies, the little black clouds start to disappear.  So if we think of our complaints as little black clouds, our goal is to have a day of nothing but blue skies!  The reality is, we have nothing to lose by giving this a try.

I suspect, too, that for those who are keeping a joy jar, a day without complaints would definitely be noteworthy for the joy jar!  I don't expect to make it through a whole day of no complaints without a few tools!  My ever-present, imaginary heart shaped confetti may well get a good workout before the 24 hours is done.  I presume I may also need a healthy store of love and light to direct at people and challenges which try to thwart me in my mission.  Whatever it takes, though, should be worth the effort because without complaints, there's a significant reduction in negative energy and I challenge anyone to explain to me how that could possibly be a bad thing! 

It also occurs to me that I will make ample use of the Hamster of Happiness button which sits on my desk at work, courtesy of my daughter of the warped sense of humor.  Perhaps the dancing sheep who sings "Move like Jagger" would be a worthy addition to the scenario as well.  I guess, when I think about it, the real key is to find the humor in any and everything while eschewing complaints.  It is pretty difficult to be angry or cranky when you're giggling over something ridiculous, so by making the day a series of pockets of absurdity, the need to complain about anything diminishes exponentially. 

I'm getting a little carried away with this concept, but my mind has gone from "no complaining" to having absurd thoughts from the moment my eyes open in response to either my alarm or my hungry furballs (made worse tonight by the fact that the food had to be picked up by 8:00 PM to accommodate Scooby who is having his teeth cleaned in the morning (you haven't experienced halitosis until you've had a cat who is overdo for a cleaning! )  At any rate, I'm stealing  a page from the "think 5 impossible things before breakfast" crowd and setting my sights on having as many absurd thoughts as possible! 

Stay tuned for reports on massive amounts of absurdity and the demise of the complaint (even if it's only for a day!)

My gratitudes tonight are:

1. I am grateful for the opportunity to share laughs with friends.
2. I am grateful for a heavy work load as it gives me more opportunity to be productive.
3. I am grateful for an expanded network which increases the ideas coming to me.
4. I am grateful for connections with others who share my activities.
5. I am grateful for multiple dance nights for the sake of my sanity.

Love and light.