OODLs (Observations on Daily Life)

Our electricity went out just before 1:00 this morning. When the alarm woke me from a light doze at 5:30 AM, power still hadn't been restored. I woke up sleep-deprived, grumpy, and thinking of everything no power meant for my morning: A workout in the dark with no Grace & Frankie to distract me from the fact I had voluntarily left my bed before dawn to torture myself with cardio. No daylight lamp to give me the wakeup (and mood) boost I desperately needed. A seriously cold shower after my workout. No tea (read: no caffeine) with breakfast. T.G.I.F.  On the bright side, I could still meditate. The thought of enjoying those few moments of undisturbed silence cheered me up quite a bit. As I settled in for my morning meditation, the power surges started. And they didn't stop. This caused our battery backups to beep incessantly. I grumbled. Then I smiled. To put it delicately, my morning had been shot all to hell. Nothing had gone according to plan. The routines I depend on for ...

I used to be obsessed with keeping everyone happy. My thinking seemed logical: If everyone was happy, there would be harmony, and everyone's lives would be easier as a result. Including mine. This obsession continued for decades. I became something of a master at making [almost] everyone happy. As you might have guessed, I was the [almost]. There were times when I did successfully make everyone happy, there was harmony, and life was easy for everyone. The problem was, those times were very rare. Usually, I felt like I was holding a giant, knotted, sparking ball of livewires, playing the world's most sadistic game of Twister while I tried to keep the ends from touching and blowing up the whole thing. I can't tell you when enough became enough or when I finally understood the adage "If you try to please everyone, you please no one" was a truism and not a challenge. And I won't lie and say I have it all figured out now and never fall back into that...