Since I’ve taken up the habit of experiencing in the NOW, some of my emotional hot buttons have dissolved.
One of my old triggers related to menial chores – or at least ones that I used to think of as menial.
On the one hand, I disdained the stereotypical white South African of the apartheid era who lorded it over black people. On the other hand, when the going got tough, my inner white South African would come to the fore. I’d resent doing chores that were hot and sweaty, that were dirty, that were repetitive, that were boring, and so on.
My husband, Greg, and I met each other just over three years ago. One of the features I found attractive about him in the beginning was his love of nature, his knowledge of trees, etc.
That was all very well, as long as we did activities that I enjoyed, such as hiking. That didn’t involve work, in the sense that Mother Nature did all of the gardening in the parks that we explored.
It was an entirely different matter when Greg turned his hand to gardening, splitting firewood, pruning trees, and digging ditches on his rural property. In theory I believed in eating locally grown, organic food and doing all that environmentally friendly stuff that greenie weanies do. But, man, it’s hard work! Not only that, but it’s dirty, hot, sweaty, boring, repetitive work – or at least that’s the way it seems to a person who has an “attitude.”
While he was doing these kinds of chores, Greg would go on about how beautiful the spring blossoms were or how cute the birds were or how blue the sky was. I would think to myself, “Yeah, sure, but if we want to soak in nature we could just go for a walk. Why does getting out and enjoying the blossoms and the birds and the sky involve so much work?”
Yet, over many months, my attitude began to change. Bit by bit, I started enjoying outdoor activities. I don’t just mean recreational outdoor activities such as hiking, sailing and kayaking – although I still enjoy them too – but outdoor activities that involve hard, dirty, hot, sweaty, repetitive work.
Gradually I came to derive a sense of satisfaction from the completion of a task, however humble. I lost my distaste for getting dirty, and my tolerance for repetition expanded. Believe it or not, I started enjoying the blossoms and the birds and the sky to which I was treated while I was working.
These days it’s very rare for me to wonder why I should have to do what I’m doing.
Just in case you think I’m trying to pass myself off as a saint whose ego has dissolved, let me hasten to add that I still have some emotional hot buttons left! I’ll share one of them in my next piece.
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