Space Is The Place When You're Having A Bad Day

Let’s face it, we all have bad days. It’s been my observation that a bad day usually starts with my being totally narcissistic and focused on myself. I suddenly feel that there’s a conspiracy against me and that everything is going wrong because I slept late, scrambled to get out the door, forgot something important at home and wound up behind every school bus or impaired driver in the county. It’s easy to see how it can escalate into a festival of “why me?” which just seems to continue throughout the day and fuel the growing pity party.

But here’s the thing. Keeping things in perspective is the key to turning the tide on a bad day. It’s all too easy to take every supposed wrong personally but if you shift your perspective and stop looking for some tragic conspiracy in everything (believe me, you’ll find it), it’s amazing how much better you feel. And nothing gives you a bigger, faster, better dose of perspective than good old outer space.

I happen to be a big time galaxy girl and I will tell you that I’ve probably seen every show out there about how the universe was made. Nothing puts a smile on my face like watching some Gee Whiz scientist talk about the many ways the universe could simply twitch and we’d all be incinerated, flung out into zero gravity, expanded, exploded, spun off our axis, you name it. I have no idea why I delight in such self-destruction except that it brings me back to the days of Horton and his dust speck. It reminds me of how small we are in the grand scheme of things and I am jolted into awe for the spectacular enormity of space. I guess when set against a galactic backdrop, nothing seems that important or urgent or even permanent - especially a bad mood. It also makes it that much easier for me to reverse the evil tide, recalibrate my day, and find my smile. Ground control to Major Tom.