Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Wearing My Grown-up Pants





With a sigh this morning, I decided it was a day for the grown-up pants.


Maybe I should explain what I mean by that. First a little context.

Sometimes I feel daunted by the many choices I am faced with each day. What disturbs my serenity the most is that to the extent I grapple with emergent questions and their associated, options disguised as solutions; I am less able to be mature in the selection of appropriate solutions for the daily and mundane. I increasingly deteriorate until I am justifying myself as a child would, thinking “But I wanna!” Its, after all, those pesky little daily decision which will or could be the most important ones effecting quality of life in my dottering years. Right? I mean after all buttery buttermilk biscuits with marmalade may sound yummy and comforting right now, but if I pursue that each day…. I do need to be able to get out of the chair. Right? I enjoy hiking and breathing deeply and chasing the dog around the dog park and well you get the idea.


I don’t want to inject too much drama into what is really the everyday stuff of any person’s life. After all, deciding on melted cheese with a sticky bun or a candy bar instead of a bowl of homemade vegetable soup for a midday meal isn’t a big deal. One shouldn’t put too much importance in such things. Deciding to put my lace up shoes on with my grown-up pants on a Saturday instead of lounging around with my social media friends and fuzzy slippers is just such a mundane decision. But I find as my workweek life with its bigger topics predominates, I increasingly take the easy, comfortable slouchy way of sitting through the day. As I dwell on the rational grown-up dilemmas and serious stuff, I am more apt to gratify myself at the expense of nutrient rich decisions.



Tomorrow I can grow up, today I want to feel comfortable.



When things got tough for me as a little girl, my grandma would caution me to wear my grown-up pants. This was an expression reminding me that a reasoned, adult approach would be necessary to face whatever was destined for me that day. She was so right. She was… wasn’t she?