A Temporarily Bad Day

“During the course of your temporary hurdles, keep searching for a tad of optimism.”

Charmaine J. Forde

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED

Not gonna lie, I was having a pretty lousy day. In the midst of an important tournament, my golf game was leaving much to be desired.  I’ll admit it was making me pretty darned miserable.

TAKE-OFF

TAKE-OFF

“Never place something temporary over the priority of something of permanence.”

Steven Redhead

After joining the rest of the field for lunch, I headed back to my car, only to find two important email messages. The first was from my brother, letting me know his prostate cancer surgery had gone well. The second was to leave word on a loved one who’d received a report from her doctors. Her prognosis had improved dramatically following treatment of a severe illness.  Nothing in this world could have highlighted more dramatically the unimportance of a bad day of golf.

HAWK AT REST

HAWK AT REST

“Failure is only but a temporary phenomenon.”

Sunday Adelaja

My golf now forgotten, I arrived home a few minutes later and happened to glance out my back window.  I noticed a rather odd-looking animal in the back yard which, it turns out, wasn’t an animal at all.  In fact, it was a gorgeous bald eagle which had stopped to rest beside a pond. I ran for my camera, knowing he wouldn’t sit still for long. I managed to hurriedly catch the first two captures in today’s post before he disappeared into the trees. My immediate thought was – bad golf, healthy family, beautiful eagle in my backyard….yep, definitely a more than fair trade!

HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU

HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU

“Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.”

Napoleon Hill

I’ve also included two captures of a beautiful hawk which settled into a tree in front of our next-door neighbor’s home last week. Happily, our neighborhood seems to have become a stopover for some beautiful birds of prey . Lucky us 😀!

When in the midst of a bad moment, no matter how inconsequential, we sometimes lose sight of what’s really important in this life. As I settled in for the evening I took a moment to be thankful for my many blessings, and vowed to try to remember them the next time I find myself over-reacting to life’s little annoyances.

WPC Temporary

 

 

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97 thoughts on “A Temporarily Bad Day”

  3. So true not to escalate the relatively small stuff. Need to save one’s emotional resources for the things that really do matter.Nice that nature’s healing power helps us too! Wishing your brother a smooth recovery from his surgery and that your friend is on the road to recovery too.

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  4. A fair trade indeed! The final photograph is beautifully composed. I was feeling a bit discouraged by the gray, wet, chilly November weather here the other day and forced myself to go out for a walk when the rain cleared. The woods were way prettied than I ever imagined they would be, and I saw an owl! Nothing like surprising bird sightings to lift your day….and I’m happy about your good news. BTW, we have a Painted bunting up here – I haven’t seen it yet, it’s 60 miles north, but isn’t that amazing? It brought back memories of seeing them on Sea Island in the 60’s – another bird to lift a bad day!

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  7. love these shots …so FREEing……your words SO PERFECT (as usual) thank u for sharing your experience …one that we all face too often…YES so important to be able to realize what REALLY matters…just BEAUTIFUL!!🌹

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  9. Fabulous captures and lovely words of wisdom, Tina. An awesome response to the challenge. There’s always someting to be grateful and happy for and I mostly feel it makes a stronger impact once one starts expressing it or reading or hearing how someone else puts it into words an art.
    To quickly grab your camera and shoot something like this, well wow! Do you mind me asking what lense did you use?

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  12. I read this offline and was so comforted by the ‘gifts’ you received to compensate for your not-so-good day. That often happens to me – if I pause and take note of what’s around me, there is usually a gift waiting – as if to say, ‘Well it took you long enough to notice!’

    Lovely post, dear beautiful Tina!

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    • Oh I sure hope you’re right on that Dor – BTW today on the golf course (and yes, I played much better thanks) there must have been 200 birds including 3 eagles, several hawks and zillions of wood storks and egrets. It was the first cold day this year and as they were all swooping and diving into our largest lagoon, I’m assuming there must have been a fish kill. It was astoundingly fabulous!

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  19. Love that well worded reminder ‘When in the midst of a bad moment…….’ served its purpose today for me. Thanks.
    And the quotes that you write are so apt, each time.

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  20. Glad you reached that moment when you realized that not having your best golf day is so unimportant in the scheme of so many other important events. It was a gift to have you out there with me as my partner and to be able to spend time together in such a beautiful setting. Friendship trumps score every time!

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  21. I love how you turned your day around from annoyed to one of positivity. I find more and more I am doing that as well. I was “whining” about a minor injury recently and found out that I have two neighbors who have had major surgery. All of a sudden – my injury wasn’t so bad 🙂

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  22. Wonderful post, Tina. It’s so true. We sometimes let petty annoyances and setbacks overshadow our gratitude for more important events in our lives. Keeping our perspective is the key to happiness, isn’t it? I’m still trying to master that!

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  23. Great photos and a wonderful reminder on life’s perspective! Thanks for that today! We all need to be reminded once in awhile! Joan

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  24. Very quick of you to snap those shots of the eagle. Brilliant in-motion shot too. He certainly seemed eager to fly off. Beautiful shot of the hawk in the trees too. It looked like it sat in a good position. A lot of time when I try to take photos of birds in trees, its just too shaded and my photos come out darker and grainier than i like.

    Sometimes we do lose perspective of what’s important. Recently I went through a time like that. It felt like I was searching but then had to tell myself to stop and just be greatful for what I have – and be happy like I was earlier. I was also beating myself up over not being happy with my writing, so chose to step away from it for a while and now all is better 🙂 Hope you get a good game of golf at some point. I’m sure a stroke of luck is just around the corner (no pun intended) 😀

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    • LOL re the “stroke of luck” Mabel. Sometimes a break is just what we need. With winter coming I just may find the golf break refreshing! Thanks for stopping by and for your thoughtful comment.

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  26. A day full of downs then ups Tina. Life is certainly always going to be good or/and bad, it is the way we react to everything that is important. So pleased the medical reports were reassuring.

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  27. Thank you for sharing your amazing day, Tina, along with beautiful captures. I’m always so grateful when I receive reminders like that, it always puts everything in my life in the right perspective and it makes me become more humbled.

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  29. It’s too bad we always need reminders that the things that go wrong in a day aren’t so important… but that’s how we’re wired. Very beautiful post, Tina.

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  32. T… I think this should be read as a meditation before every golf tournament ( not sure how ,many more I can endure given the similar experience)….😝 those Eagles are good messengers!

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  34. Very true, Tina. We tend to let the bad small things overwhelm the good things. I know I do. Love the shots of the birds. I really like spotting hawks. That’s one good thing about the leaves being off the trees…it’s much easier to see hawks. 🙂

    janet

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  37. Always love your posts….both words and photos. As I have aged I have come to realize these same priorities need to be at the top of our blessings list….family, friends, health and God’s natural wonders….all bring joy.

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  43. Oh an eagle…a photo capture of one is on my bucket list! What I love about your post, is even a bad day of golf (leisure) gave you perspective of the other important things, the good health of loved ones. My eyes got a little watery too, just reading how it all came together to give you a large dose of joy! Cheers my friend!

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