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| This was our dinner last night, which we were able to eat on the porch in the amazingly lovely weather. All of the produce was either from our yard or from our fantastic CSA. |
—Becca, nutmegknitter.blogspot.com
That's the nugget, isn't it? It feels like there's this big pressure to settle ourselves, to get our ducks in a row, to tidy up our lives, to get things in order. But the truth of it is that achieving that orderly state is impossible for more than a few moments at a time. The little adjustments and changes and tweaks are ongoing—and in fact, they are what makes life interesting. So clearly to be able to consider life as a work in progress would probably make things a lot easier for a lot of us.
Except often times, we can't quite get ourselves there. Or at least, I know that I can't.
Take, for example, my efforts to clean the kitchen floor. Every weekend, I vacuum and wash the thing—our linoleum shows dirt like the dickens. And about an hour later, it's like my efforts never even happened. And you'd think that a gray floor would be helpful for camouflaging purposes but no, nope! Plus, when you have a garden as big as we do, and you're constantly prepping veggies that were in the ground not so long ago, dirt makes its way onto the floor. That is just a part of our life.
And somehow, this it still irritates me.
But, on the flip side, there is the plain fact that this way of living translates into us cooking a ton. Which means that we eat really, really well. And we are proud of that fact because we value our connection to the land (it seems like the least we can do in a state that is currently overrun with crop dusters) and our support of responsible farmers. So everyday I find that I am practicing my patience as I prepare dinner, balancing these two opposing ideas, doing my best to accept the situations for what they are—95% enjoyable, 5% frustrating.
Which at the end of the day, aren't such bad odds.
Self, please take note.
So this week I'm wondering:
How do you find patience in your daily life?
Or, what worries have you let go in favor of enjoying your life more?
P.S. Becca is this close to having baby #2 so let's send her all the happiest and speediest delivery thoughts we can, okay? Okay!
P.P.S. Blogger is doing funky things to my spacing in this post, just as an fyi.
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As I live in the city, whenever I'm doing something stressful it often involves having to go somewhere. And no matter how stressed I am about it, riding the T makes it a little easier. I can't control how fast the T goes, I merely ride it (the bus doesn't work the same way though -- I get pissed at how slow the bus is).
ReplyDeleteI guess what works for me is finding what I can't control and taking refuge. It takes 30 mins to bake a cake? Have a seat for 30 mins. Y'know? Just take a quick break.