One Good Thought

Inside my head there are all these depressing thoughts.
Big ones, small ones, fat ones, skinny ones.
They're all kind of scruffy, like they need a shave.
Their t-shirts have holes in them and their shoes are untied.
There's a bunch of them, I swear.

They all get together and hang out, sitting around on naugahyde
recliners, sipping Wild Turkey, in the dark basement of my mind,
reminding me of all the things that are wrong with the world
and my life.

I have one good thought, though.
But it's a loner and has a hard time expressing itself.
In fact, this one good thought is the only thing that
gets the bad thoughts riled up.
All that good thought has to do is stick it's head in the
door and all the bad thoughts start yelling and having a fit.

It's like that old carnival game "Whac-A-Mole."
Good Thought pops up it's head
and Bad Thoughts hit it with a mallet.
Whack! Whack! Whack!

Bad Thoughts are very strong and persistent.
But, once in a blue moon I actually step in.
I take Good Thought outside in the sunshine
and I say, "Okay, you've got ten seconds.
You better make it good, Good.
Can I call you 'Good'?"

Meanwhile, Bad Thoughts are boiling mad.
They're stomping up and down.
They're banging on the door telling me to get back in there.
I glance back and I see smoke and a red glow coming through
the crack in the door.

Good Thought looks up at me and blinks it's eyes slowly,
like a mourning dove.
It says, very simply,
"Rejoice! You are one of the luckiest people alive on the planet."

Then I cry.
I cry because it's true.

Later, after a lot of self-recrimination,
Good Thought and I are out in the garden
pulling weeds and whistling along with the birds in the trees
and feeling the sunshine on our backs.
We're rejoicing.

We rejoice when I pull out a dandelion and get all the root.
We rejoice when we find a Coral Bells seedling.
We rejoice when the the big "night crawler" worm goes in the other direction.
We rejoice when the breeze blows the scent of the Star Gazer lily our way.

Every once in a while Good Thought pats me on the back and kindly says,
"It's okay, Stupid. You'll get it one day. Just keep trying."
"Okay," I say.