Habits and Routines

It's been interesting watching events of the last few days unfold. We've known for days that there was a good probability of atypically bad weather coming for our area.  Let's face it, we're in the south. We do not cope with freezing rain and sleet with the same blasé attitude our neighbors to the north seem to have. We tend to be poorly prepared to manage without electricity or a frequent trip to the grocery.

 

I've got to admit I am a creature of habit. Most of us are to some extent or another. We get up in the morning in a particular way. We follow a particular path through our days. It may vary some by day but essentially we are very predictable. We have our habits, our routines, our way of doing things and we don't really like to deviate from that.

Have you ever noticed, when your week has been disrupted by a holiday or a snow day, that it takes a day or two to reorient yourself in time? You've broken your routine and been forced to modify your habits. 

 

Habits and routines are powerful tools. Most that we use are just ways we've found to do everyday activities in ways that work for us. They're not right. They're not wrong. They're just our way. What would happen if we changed our habits so that they are truly to our advantage? What if we stopped habits that were harmful and replaced them with helpful habits?

Replace compulsive spending with a little compulsive saving. Replace grabbing a quick, sugar laden snack with something healthier. Replace 30 minutes spent sitting still, unwinding with 30 minutes of exercise. Replace one habit at a time, one week at a time, one old routine with a new one; gradually improving along the way. 

Sick of It

This has been a quiet week for our household. Two of my children were sick most of the week. Fortunately, due to a mid-week holiday, it was the least scheduled week of the month. Wednesday night Scout meetings were canceled. There were no Thursday  or Friday afternoon meetings. It was blessedly quiet week all the way to the end.

 

That wasn't the case for many folks. A few hardy souls were lining up outside favored stores by Wednesday evening waiting for bargain shopping that would be coming up soon. Newspapers, TV, and radio all oozed a constant flow of information on where the best bargains would be found on Black Friday.

 

Why do I hear "Black Friday" but think "Black Plague?" It could be because the whole general concept disgusts me.  Folks are in such a hurry to get a deal that the meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday and the upcoming Christmas holiday are totally forgotten.  No, let me correct that. The meaning of the holidays is ignored. It's bad enough that the Thanksgiving feast has turned from a special meal for which we are thankful into a culinary orgy of gluttony. Or, since it's not easily commercialized, the Thanksgiving gathering is reduced to nothing more than a meal with a archaic theme. Follow that closely with a grab-fest of greed induced shopping and I find the whole weekend nauseating.

 

I'm stunned. Really? People fighting over televisions and towels because they're on sale? A plague on us indeed if this is what our affluent society has come to!