Orange Corduroy, Blue Leisure or Bobby Vinton?

How amazing is it that we each get to choose to bring our joy to even the most mundane tasks within life!  Thank goodness for this, don’t you think?

When I think of instances where we might buy into the too trodden pathway of going through the motions, 3 things come to mind:  being” borg-like”, “being comfortably numb” or “living lives of quiet desperation.”  Intentionally, these 3 examples, my heart believes everyone will relate to at least one of.  Some folks will relate to the reference to the “borg-like” selection towards life if you are a Star Trek fan.  Can you be “an original “within “a collection?”  We get to answer that question for ourselves.  Perhaps, you are a fan of Pink Floyd music & are fond of the song, “Comfortably Numb.”  That can become a life choice for some folks as well.  It can become the “I am fine” so it is more comfortable to stay exactly where I am on life’s journey rather than change anything much.  We get to ask ourselves if “fine” is real or even “good enough” for our lives.  Finally, there is the famous quote by Henry David Thoreau in reference to many folks leading lives of quiet desperation.  Yikes, we could not possibly want this for ourselves or others I hope.

Personally, I find that changing up routine is something that I enjoy.  The other thing that is awesome is knowing that for the things in life that either need to routinely be done or are pretty mundane, I have this thing called creative excitement that I get to employ.  Take type 1 diabetes care as an example.  For the infusion sets, the ones that I use need to be changed every 3 days.  Do I want to change them every 3 days or ever?  No, of course, I don’t.  Do I change them every 3 days anyway.  You bet I do!  Our sons know that when I change the infusion that I am going to make a short hopefully humourous announcement to let them know that Mommy is going to be unavailable for 5 minutes.  Sometimes I will say something like, “Mommy is going to be in outer space for 5 minutes changing her infusion site” if we have watched a space movie or “Mommy is going to be in the kitchen doing the dreaded infusion site” however I then begin to recite a twist on “Green Eggs & Ham.”  Sometimes it will go something like, “I do not want a needle here or there, or with a goat or on a boat…”  It puts a human spin on something routine & undesirable & it shows the boys a couple of things:  that even when we don’t want to do something, if it is for the greater good, we do it anyhow whether we feel like it or not, and we can choose to do anything with humour.  It turns out that even routine or undesirable tasks in life can be completed with our own originality. 

When it comes to diabetes or other 365 challenges, there could be many things that are either routine, a bit of a grind or undesirable about our physical self care.  What is going to serve us better we ask ourselves:  a pessimistic attitude or an optimistic attitude?  We answer that question for ourselves.  We get to add our own flair to every situation in life thankfully.

Do you know what will often give me a hint that someone that I don’t know that well  may need a lift?  It is contained within his or her handshake.  If I shake someone’s hand & there is a “limp fish” handshake happening as opposed to a firm one or shake & the other hand on top of mine, there may be a clue there.  Could that “limp fish handshake” be a small sign of the “borg-like”, “comfortably numb”, or “quiet desperation” happening?  Maybe, maybe not.  We get to choose to find out.  Why?  The reason is that you & I don’t want that for others.  We don’t want folks to merely be “fine” or worse, “merely numbed out” in their attitudes towards life.  If we know that there is more for ourselves & others, then of course, we want to share that.  That is a choice too.

If you are living with an adolescent, you may be familiar with either receiving answers that are caveman like grunts or articulations of “fine.”  Here’s a wee story of a recent outing with our family of a “fine” transformed into countless laughs.  Our oldest son, Matt is preparing for the sacrament of confirmation & this celebration is happening in a couple of weeks.  He is therefore in need of a suit.  You can imagine how excited he was about the task of going out with his family to try on a suit.  If you are imagining a 5 foot 11 inch bundle of excitement at the possibility then turn that thought upside down & you will have the exact picture of his attitude towards suit shopping.  Matt has come to realize that his parents can be a bit eccentric so it did not faze him too much when what I am about to share with you unfolded.  (No pun intended)

As our family stepped into the suit shop, the gentleman working there approached us & asked us if we could use some assistance.  Without hesitation, I let the gentleman know that we were looking for a suit for Matt in either orange corduroy, a blue leisure suit like the one that “cousin Eddie wore in Christmas Vacation” or a Bobby Vinton type style.  This was met with quite a laugh from the sales fellow who had not had a humourous interchange like this before in the store.  Best of all, our Dear Heart, Matt, although still stating that everything that he tried on was “fine” was laughing heartily during the whole suit shopping experience.  Brian jumped in & insisted that the suit required a Pink Panther tie & we all got a great laugh from that too.  As a wee aside, we did not choose the Pink Panther tie for this particular occasion yet it may just show up for a future occasion!

Life is a treasure to fully live & share.  If we received a beautiful gift & it was wrapped up & placed on a table in one of the rooms of our home, would we either mundanely walk past it & say that it looked “fine” or would we leave it there still wrapped up potentially forever?  I emphatically say, I hope not!  Wouldn’t we rather get excited about seeing the gift, & unwrap it with joy?  My heart hopes so.

My heart’s hope for you is that whether your day consists of taking care of routine or mundane or splendidly exciting tasks that you embrace every moment in your own creative originality.  Say, maybe we could choose to dust in a blue leisure suit at least in our imaginations!

Smiles, Saundie  :)

Have some laughs this week &  this Friday's sharing is entitled, "Life's Triplets:  Exasperation, Contemplation & Determination"  :)