Colton flopped down onto the edge of the picnic table like the day itself had followed him home and decided to sit on his shoulders. It wasn’t just a bad day. It was an awful day. The kind where everything seems to go slightly wrong, even before you know why, and your backpack feels heavier, your sighs come out louder, and the world seems to shrug and say, “Good luck, kid.”
Xavier looked up from tying his sneaker and noticed right away Colton didn't look his happy self.
This was not a “normal after school Colton sit.”
This was a something has gone very wrong sit.
“Rough day?” Xavier asked.
Colton let out a long sigh. The kind that starts in your toes and works its way up.
“You don’t even know,” he said. “This day has been bad since before it even started.”
Xavier raised an eyebrow. “Before it started?”
“Oh yeah,” Colton said. “Let me tell you.”
He took a deep breath and began.
“Well first, I woke up already tired. That was mistake number one. Then I went to the kitchen for my favorite cereal. You know. The one with those little marshmallows.”
Xavier nodded seriously. “The good one, ya of course.”
“Gone,” Colton said. “Completely empty box. Just crumbs. I shook it anyway. Nothing. That’s when I knew.”
“Knew what?” Xavier asked.
“That the day was against me.”
Xavier smiled a little but didn’t interrupt.
“Then I got on the bus,” Colton continued, “and guess what.”
“What.”
“Someone was sitting in my seat.”
Xavier winced. “Oh no.”
“I stood there awkwardly while the bus bumped around like it didn’t care about my feelings at all,” Colton said. “I had to sit somewhere else. Everything felt off after that.”
Xavier stayed quiet, listening.
“And when I finally got to school,” Colton said, throwing his hands up, “I realized my homework was still on the kitchen table. Just sitting there. Probably next to the empty cereal box.”
“That’s rough,” Xavier said.
“And it didn’t stop there ” Colton said. “In gym class, my team lost dodgeball. Badly. I got hit twice in the first minute. Once in the leg. Once right in the back.”
Xavier tried not to laugh. He did a little.
“Then the bus broke down on the way home,” Colton said. “So I got home late. And when I finally sat down to play video games to forget about the day…”
He took a deep breath, you wont believe this.
“The internet was out!”
Xavier nodded slowly. “Of course it was.”
Colton leaned back and stared at the sky.
“It’s like the whole day was stacked against me. One thing after another. I couldn’t catch a break.”
They sat quietly for a moment. A breeze moved through the trees. Somewhere, a dog barked like it was having a much better day.
Xavier finally spoke.
“Can I tell you something?” he asked.
Colton shrugged. “Sure. I guess. It can’t make it worse.”
Xavier smiled. “I don’t think it can.”
He thought for a second. “When you’re telling me about your day, it kind of sounds like each thing made sense on its own. Empty cereal. Someone takes your seat. Homework gets forgotten. Dodgeball loss. Bus breaks down. Internet goes out.”
Colton nodded. “Exactly. See? Awful.”
“But,” Xavier said gently, “it sounds like your thoughts about each thing kept piling up.”
Colton frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” Xavier said, “the cereal was gone. That happened. But then the thought was, ‘This day is against me.’ And after that, every other thing felt bigger.”
Colton thought about that.
“And when someone sat in your seat,” Xavier continued, “the seat didn’t actually do anything to you. But the thought about it made it feel personal.”
Colton shifted. “I did feel like the universe was messing with me.”
Xavier smiled. “Yeah. I’ve had days like that too.”
“So you’re saying,” Colton said slowly, “that the stuff didn’t make me feel bad. The way I was thinking about it did.”
Xavier nodded. “That’s what I’ve noticed for myself.”
They sat quietly again.
“You know what’s funny?” Xavier said. “If you told this whole story tomorrow, it might actually make you laugh.”
Colton thought about that for a second, then smiled. “Yeah. The internet being out after everything else was kind of ridiculous.”
“Exactly,” Xavier said. “Same stuff happened. But tomorrow, you won’t be thinking about it the same way.”
“Exactly,” Xavier said. “Same events. Different thoughts.”
Colton took a slow breath, and for the first time all day, his shoulders dropped a little.
“So what do you do when you’re stuck in those thoughts?” he asked.
Xavier shrugged. “I don’t try to fix them. I just let them pass. Like clouds.”
Colton looked up. A few clouds drifted slowly across the sky.
“They don’t need my help,” Xavier added. “They move on their own.”
Colton smiled. “So I don’t have to replay the whole day in my head?”
“Nope,” Xavier said. “You can just let it go.”
Colton laughed softly. “Man. If I had known that earlier, I might have saved myself a lot of dramatic sighing.”
Xavier grinned. “You do have a pretty impressive sigh.”
They both laughed.
And just like that, the day didn’t feel so heavy anymore.
Three Principles in Action
Mind
Even on Colton’s worst day, the quiet wisdom underneath everything was still there. It didn’t disappear when the cereal ran out or the bus broke down. When Colton slowed down and listened, he felt that natural calm return.
Consciousness
Consciousness made Colton’s experience feel real in the moment. When his thinking was noisy, the day felt overwhelming. When his thinking settled, the same day felt lighter, even a little funny.
Thought
Thought was the paintbrush coloring Colton’s day. The events stayed the same, but the way he thought about them changed how he felt. When he let those thoughts pass, the picture changed on its own.
Final Thought
Some days fall apart before breakfast. That doesn’t mean you are falling apart. It just means thought got a little loud for a while. When you stop wrestling with it, thought settles, the picture changes, and sometimes the very day you thought was terrible becomes the one you laugh about later. Even if the internet never comes back on.
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