There's a gnat in my cereal!

This morning I had a great run on the treadmill.  We're still arch enemies mind you but I refuse to surrender so the battle rages on.

Seeing that I was up at the ass crack of dawn and my family was fast asleep (lazy bums, what do they think this is...the first day of summer vacation?), I decided to pour myself a bowl of cereal and have my breakfast outside on the back patio and finish sweating.

As I crunched away on my cereal and thought about all that I have to get accomplished today I was wasn't paying attention or protecting my cereal bowl from the pesky uninvited breakfast guests which had suddenly arrived.  Lost in thought I mindlessly reached for my bowl and seeing that I was nearing the end of my cereal prepared to down the remaining milk in one big 'ol gulp.  That's when I saw it!  A gnat the size of Toledo was doing a backstroke in my cereal bowl!  I can't be sure but I think it was whistling a tune too!

I slammed down my bowl, feeling instantly violated.  Here I was planning a perfectly good Monday (errr...Tuesday) and low and behold the one time I decide to have breakfast out on the back porch and this happens!  This was a disaster!  My cereal, though mostly gone, was now ruined.  There would be last dairy shot of cool goodness to mark the ceremonial end to my breakfast.  No, none of that!  It was all ruined because this pesky little bugger (the size of Toledo) decided to take a back flip off the high dive of my patience into my milk!  My fricken milk I tell ya!

I angrily tossed the remaining contents of the bowl into the grass, disgusted and upset that I had been robbed of a simple but important pleasure.  This was an atrocity beyond measure.  Oh great, I thought to myself, this is probably a sign of things to come today!  I got up from the table and started to storm into the house, bad mood on full throttle.  Then I stopped.

Maybe it was the beautiful cardinal that caught my eye.  Maybe it was the soft gentle breeze as it blew through our tall oaks.  I just stood there for a minute as I let the shade of red I was seeing through subside and the beauty and the wonder of my backyard waking up to the day ahead replace it as my focus.  The whistling of the birds.  The dog barking "let me in!" one street over.  The gentle hum of calmness suddenly swept over me like a hug (not your creepy Ben Gay cough drop laced Aunt Edna hugs, the good kind!).

Sure that stupid gnat and his assault on my day wasn't really that big of a deal was it?  I smiled to myself. I even let out a little laugh as I imagined how silly I looked.  How many gnat-like annoyances will I encounter today?  What if I got this angry and allowed such a minor "event" to have that big an effect on my day.  I would be a wreck! 

Yet how many of us overreact to the gnats in our lives?  How many times do we let the wheels come off the bus because we allow some little thing to become bigger than it ever should be?

Well, Mr. Gnat may have improved his gnatty street cred this morning with his monumental assault on my precious cereal bowl.  Who knows, it may be a story which will be told to countless generations of his gnat friends and family about the day he "Attacked the man and lived to tell about it."  To me, it was a minor annoyance and nothing more.  I'll get over it.

And so should you....when those gnats appear.  Just swat the little bastards and move on.

Ripple On!!!