Lesson one is about the dishes. It’s always about the dishes. Adulthood is just dirtying and cleaning dishes or letting ranch dressing congeal on plates in the sink until your parents come over or you can’t stand yourself. Tolerance levels vary.
Lesson two is about strategy. Strategy is just what makes you different. Companies, but also you. It’s saying no so you can say yes to the right things. It’s saying yes and not realizing what you’re saying no to. It’s focusing. It’s pivoting. It’s refocusing.
Lesson three is about my great grandfather’s ring, worn on my left middle finger. It stands for moderation and my mom gave it to me after wearing it her whole life because I think she knew I needed this lesson again and again. I do need it, again and again. I live in the extremes. The all or nothing. It is glorious and dangerous and moderation, my dear.
Lesson four is the way I’ve caught my reflection in any mirror-like surface my whole life but it took a lot of practice to stop and stare and love the flesh on my nose, my cheeks, the way I am older and more myself than I have ever been.
Lesson five is the sweat. On my lap. Under my arms. Behind the knees. From the heat pad on my lap that helps until it’s too much and I throw it off. The extremes. Too cold. Too hot. Never in between. This is the same lesson. Moderation.
Lesson six is about aspartame. A tradeoff I’ve accepted (I can name a hundred worse vices and a hundred better ones), one can, two can, but three cans is one too many. Blood should feel like blood and not Diet Coke.
Lesson seven is about the present and the future. They say you’ll have your whole life to watch TV and yet and yet. They say you’ll have your whole life to have kids, a house, a name in print, and yet and yet. I look for a finish line. I tell myself there’s no finish line. And back and forth. This is why people meditate. This is why I meditate.
With Love,
Natalie