You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby..

Comparison is the thief of joy.
~ Theodore Roosevelt

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I want to be when I grow up. Heaven knows I don’t want to be a data collector teacher forever.  I have no shortage of interests..photography, calligraphy, knitting…All of which I have gotten my feet wet with in the past.  Well, not so much knitting, but my mom was a co-owner of a yarn & fabric shop for many years. She used to knit me the most gorgeous sweaters when I was in high school and college, so does that count?  Anyway, when I get online and start looking around at what other people are doing, I can’t help but think to myself:  Boy howdy, how do they do that?  And then what follows is a cascade of feelings that go something like this: Oh I could never learn how to do that or I’m not creative enough to produce that or jeepers I don’t have that kind of talent…and if I’m not careful, on and on it goes..    In my younger days, I would fall into that trap time and again.  Ohh, what’s that Lucy, a football to kick?  

Fortunately I’m old enough and wise enough to put a stop to it all and I remember a few things. Sometimes (audibly) I’ll say to myself in the manner that we all want and hope for Charlie Brown himself to shout out:  Wait, wait, wait.  Wait just a cotton-pickin’ minute here! And I begin to take stock…

Here is what I know for sure:

1. Almost two years ago, I was told I had high cholesterol and needed to go on medicine for it.  Instead, I changed what I put on my plate, and changed my health.
2. A long walk every day is good for the mind.
3. A hike in the woods a few times a week is good for the soul.
4. Sometimes we need to put down the device and remember that what’s online is usually everyone’s best version of themselves, and that we are all human.

So this week when I forgot to take photos of the paleo pork recipe that I made, and didn’t adequately meal plan like a good functional medicine patient, and left my laptop at the wrong school like a hurried itinerant teacher, instead of measuring myself by someone else’s yardstick, I just had to throw my hands up and say Oh. Well.  

I decided to embrace the day and the sunshine with the same joy that my dog does:

And sit for a minute and enjoy the view:

And tell those I love how special they are to me:

Then suddenly I remembered the words of Joseph Campbell:  The privilege of a lifetime is being who we are.  

And all was right in the world again.