Such a perfect day

I have had a wonderful, ordinary, joyful day.

Brunch to start with, in the company of my stylish friend Jo, who regales me with amusing descriptions of an event she recently attended. It is while listening to her that I am reminded of New Boss's recent behaviour (mainly because it dawns on me that neither Jo, nor I, nor anyone we know would dream of telling someone what they think and feel is "silly").

When I share the events of yesterday afternoon with Jo, she comes out with another of her insightful flashes of brilliance. "The problem with your New Boss," she says, "is that he actually believes he is good at dealing with people's problems".

Yes, of course! Now everything starts to make sense. It is not that New Boss is an insensitive, clumsy twat (despite him managing to do an extremely good impression of such). He clearly considers he has the capability and finesse to deal with my issues; and that by not "responding" in a grateful way, and unburdening myself therapeutically upon him, I am being obstructive and difficult.

Oh dear. It's hard to imagine how I am going to interact with someone who has such a flawed vision of themselves. But there is really no point continuing to feel vexed with someone who simply does not speak the same language I do....

Jo and I head off to a meeting of our support group. The main speaker is inspirational - steady and full of wisdom. Sitting directly behind us is a young woman at her first ever meeting. She speaks at the end - briefly, but with tremulous emotion. I suddenly feel so moved by her courage that I have to drop my head and compose myself.

My husband has come along to the meeting too, and sits next to Jo so that there is some separation between us (we don't like to present ourselves as a couple, preferring to interact with people as individual members). So only after the meeting has ended do we finally talk to each other. We then walk all the way home.

I only have a couple of hours here - during which I manage to fit in lunch, all the ironing, and a short snooze on the sofa - before I have to head out again to the community event. My husband has decided this is not the way he wants to spend a Saturday evening and stays in to watch football. I walk to the venue, arriving in time to help set up. After over two hours of singing, shaking the tambourine, chatting to fellow members of the choir, and laughing quite a lot; I join the team helping to clear up, before finally heading home.

If I were to try and explain why it has been such a good day, I would end up using words like:

- connection
- friendship
- laughter
- insight
- understanding
- inspiration
- community
- harmony

A number of these words are applicable to aspects of my job and many of my working relationships. Which is great. And that's what I have to focus upon; not the people who generate an entirely separate vocabulary.

When I was walking back this evening, I passed a bar where groups of people had spilled out onto the pavement. They were noisy, flirtatious, edgy, slightly aggressive and a lot out-of-control. But they didn't bother me and I didn't bother them. And it struck me that there is room for all of us on this planet. As long as we learn to leave each other well alone.