What the Funk?

What is it about being grumpy that feeds me sometimes?  I mean, I woke up yesterday with a smile on my face, feeling marvelous after a beautiful, long, peaceful sleep that bookended a lovely weekend with my family, and the next thing I know . . . POOF!  I'm Miss Grumpy Frumby.  What caused this sudden change of feeling?  I don't know.  I mean, it could not have been just that I could not find the remote for the shock collar for our monster dog Fred the Chocolate Lab Escape-Artist-Extreme.  Nor could it have been that I then could not find my favorite coffee cup (I don't even drink coffee), nor the other thing I could not find.  Oh, I don't even remember today what the hell the third thing was, I just know it pissed me off that I could not find whatever it was and that it was critical that I have it, whatever "it" was.

It just made no sense for me to be in a funk.  And, it pissed me off even more that I was.

To combat this grumpiness, I decided to ask my Facebook friends for a little pick me up.  They reminded me I was a good person; that I needed to "Get the FUNK out outta here!" by listening to disco because it is impossible for mental funk and disco to co-exist in the same moment; that there were people I cared about still experiencing the wrath of winter while I looked out peacefully at the creamy white flowers on the ornamental dogwood tree just outside my office window; that there was a full moon the night before AND it was Monday -  DUH!  Who the hell was I to be in a funk?

Taking their advice,  I decided to listen to one of my favorite "pick-me-up" songs, REO Speedwagon's Roll with the Changes, while I ran some errands.  When I got back from paying the water bill at city hall and making a deposit at my little bank (where I was greeted by smiling, friendly faces at both places which forced me to smile back at them), I listened to the all the links my FB gf's posted for me:  the  Brother's Johnson, the Muppets, and Bob Segar, not to mention the funny clips, like Mrs. Brown Gets a Bikini Wax (thanks Patti!).

Then I came across these photos on FB of some crazy surfer dudes riding the waves in a place called Shelter Bay, no, not on the Pacific Ocean, but on Lake Superior, where it is still winter and the icebergs have barely melted.   The guy who took the pics, known as PhotoYoop, said that there are surfers from as far south as Chicago that wait to hear that there are the rollers coming in on Superior and jump in their cars to get up there just in hopes to catch a wave or two.  Wow. 

Now that's perseverance and patience.   Well, and crazy.

I figured, if those dudes can take something that to the rest of the world is completely unusable to humans at this time of year, like the 35 degree temperature of icy Lake Superior, and use it for their joy, for thrill, for creating a connection between nature and human beings, then I could definitely get out of my funk.  In fact, I decided to give myself permission to not even try to figure out why I was in a funk.  I decided I was going to just get the funk out of here.

Although I have no desire to surf anywhere let alone Lake Superior, I did have a desire to clean our desk area, figuring that it was a good challenge, almost like surfing as there was enough garbage and paper to maybe ride a wave when I was done.  I worked for about 2 hours like a mad woman: singing Old Time Rock 'n' Roll, diving into piles and stacks of paper, manuals, receipts, poems,  stirring up dust and dog hair from the dark recesses of the desk, making piles of stuff to be filed, stuff to be organized, stuff to be burned at the stake!

When I finished, I felt much better, like I had just experienced one long exhale.  Suddenly I could think again, as if my thoughts had been bottled up and corked with all of the crap that had crept in and cluttered my desk area, reminding me of the cluster-fuck that I had let my life turn into which had culminated a few years ago . . . that other life of mine, the one that I left . . .

Did someone just yell, "BINGO!"?

Damn . . . and I wasn't going to even try to figure out why I was in a funk.  It was 2 years ago yesterday that I left that life,left my best friend, my husband, my house, my birds, my yard, my stuff,most of my friends, my business, my business associates, left all the things that I had up to that point, that Thursday that was my Tuesday, thought indispensable, inseparable, from my unhappy existence.

Funny how that happens, how when you let go of the need to know the cause of a feeling it miraculously plumps down into your brain, wanted or unwanted.

Today, at my uncluttered desk, in my uncluttered life, I am going to honor my decision to ride my wave 2 years ago by lighting a candle and saying a prayer to my Kikoman Soy Sauce can, the one item I HAD to take from my house that day (see post entitled "Any Tuesday Will Do"), thanking everyone who is in my support system - love you all:D

Sometimes, it really is good to be in a funk, afterall, a funk is just the low spot of the complete wave, right?

 

 

Comments

[Lisa]

WOW Auntie Sister!!! It is amazing how our minds work. I do know that once we find the answers to what ever it is that weighs us down, we can then break the chains that keep us tethered to anvil.
Did you ever discover the forgotten item you had to have, must have been the CHI that goes in the lost coffee cup.
I think i will clean my desk and listen to Old Time Rock and Roll, and dream of simpler times when we watched Tom Cruise slid across the movie screen in a dress shirt and unders... HOT HOT HOT LOL....
well youngling just sent me an IM saying look this up mom...
Melted my heart by saying love you ma... so i put in the CD and... dream of simpler times...