This post is not about natural phenomena.

Clouds in the sky, clouds in my dome.

This morning, I walked into the kitchen and expressed my frustration in a wordless growl.

“What’s wrong?”

“I must clean the dishes overwhelming the sink. But I just want to make my coffee and read.”

I began the day by complaining. I did not look out the window and notice the blue sky, obscured for days by clouds. I did not take a breath and think, “Wow. I am blessed. I live in an excellent apartment with my beautiful girlfriend and two cats — one sweet, one not so much.”

I can do better.

I will strive to find joy and beauty in my daily mundane chores. Washing dishes or scooping cat poop need not be tasks that grind my nerves. So, I flex my ability to focus and reframe.

Why am I doing the task? What’s the purpose I am overlooking? And my annoyance recedes.

I wash the dishes so that my sweets and I begin the day with an empty sink.
I clean the litter boxes because I love the cats, want them to have clean toilets, and don’t want my abode to exude the stench of kitty excrement.

I still do not tackle these routines with a smile. But I must not let them sour my mood/ There are more important issues to concern myself with, like East Coast earthquakes or eclipses.