you know the adage of "be yourself"? it's a positive message and one that is very affirming. however, i'm beginning to wonder if it's a flawed mantra. let me explain...
i can think of a handful of movies, perhaps even more, that tell the tale of an uptight woman who learns to cut-loose and enjoy life. i wonder sometimes if 'who we are' can actually box us in and make us unintentionally miserable. the control-freak who is in bondage to her own order and routine. the pack-rat who is bound by his own clutter and chaos. i guess we're all in some ways our own worst enemy. it makes me think again of moderation. everything in moderation.
one of my favourite things about the new year is that january provides a fresh start. an opportunity to channel my efforts in one area that needs change. this year i planned to learn to eat smaller portions, and i have. now it's july and i thought "why not create a mid-year resolution?" it would help me take another bite out of the horse of life. i've decided to take little mini steps towards undoing my own chaos. brendan tells me that there's no such thing as a kind of tidy. you are either tidy or you're not. you put things away or you don't. but i beg to differ. i can put SOME things away and leave others misplaced. if i try to eat the horse in one big gulp i will choak. SO my first plan is that i will change the toilet paper roll immediately instead of placing a new roll on top of the old roll. AND (??), AND (!?!) i will try to put my clothes in the drawers. but that's a big 'AND'. maybe i should start by putting just my shirts in the drawers or something. then when i conquer that i'll move onto pants. when i fall off the wagon with these types of things i REALLY fall off the wagon, so i don't want to push myself too close to the edge.
andrew and shannon invited us to the house that they're sitting last night for a bbq and bonfire. we made delicious smores and watched the flames under cover of night. i liked that when it was time to go andrew used the garden hose to put out the fire :D we're going camping in one month tomorrow, and i can't wait!!
i can think of a handful of movies, perhaps even more, that tell the tale of an uptight woman who learns to cut-loose and enjoy life. i wonder sometimes if 'who we are' can actually box us in and make us unintentionally miserable. the control-freak who is in bondage to her own order and routine. the pack-rat who is bound by his own clutter and chaos. i guess we're all in some ways our own worst enemy. it makes me think again of moderation. everything in moderation.
one of my favourite things about the new year is that january provides a fresh start. an opportunity to channel my efforts in one area that needs change. this year i planned to learn to eat smaller portions, and i have. now it's july and i thought "why not create a mid-year resolution?" it would help me take another bite out of the horse of life. i've decided to take little mini steps towards undoing my own chaos. brendan tells me that there's no such thing as a kind of tidy. you are either tidy or you're not. you put things away or you don't. but i beg to differ. i can put SOME things away and leave others misplaced. if i try to eat the horse in one big gulp i will choak. SO my first plan is that i will change the toilet paper roll immediately instead of placing a new roll on top of the old roll. AND (??), AND (!?!) i will try to put my clothes in the drawers. but that's a big 'AND'. maybe i should start by putting just my shirts in the drawers or something. then when i conquer that i'll move onto pants. when i fall off the wagon with these types of things i REALLY fall off the wagon, so i don't want to push myself too close to the edge.
andrew and shannon invited us to the house that they're sitting last night for a bbq and bonfire. we made delicious smores and watched the flames under cover of night. i liked that when it was time to go andrew used the garden hose to put out the fire :D we're going camping in one month tomorrow, and i can't wait!!
1 comment:
It think the notion of "just be yourself" is good when it means you don't need to live up to other peoples' ideas of who you are or how you should be. But I firmly believe that we should be who we WANT to be and that we don't need to live in bondage to our personalities or to who we have been in the past. Change can be hard, but we have very malleable brains and old circuits can be rewired with time and persistence.
I agree that one can be sort of tidy. I am sort of tidy. Or maybe a better way to say it is that I am sometimes tidy.
Post a Comment