How did I end up washing out paint brushes when I started out a short while before to put the tent in the loft? Those tasks could never be connected ... could they?
Here's what happened.
It’s quite simple really. It’s my old companion procrastination having a cup of tea with her mate distraction.
I was fed up of stepping around the tent so I decided to put it away (after a few weeks of avoidance) so I thought it made sense to put other things in the loft at the same time.
Some packed up painting equipment was also nearby so I placed those at the bottom of the ladder and then ... that’s when I left the task in hand and went back downstairs. You see, it made sense to put ALL the painting equipment away as I’d finished with it for a while. Therefore I decided to get the extra brushes from the kitchen.
The only problem was I hadn’t finished washing them out yet. (I know, it’s been weeks and they’ve been sat in the white spirit ‘soaking’ so that they’ll be easier to clean.) A quick task, I thought.
Having lain there so long the brushes had become congealed with paint so I had to get more white spirits to free them up. This is when I began to regret not doing it sooner. The paint began to flick all around the sink as I tried to free the sticky bristles. My hands were now covered in paint and white spirit and so were the brushes.
After struggling with them for several minutes I decided one was a lost cause and threw it away. The other two could still be rescued, I thought. This is when I looked out of the window and remembered what I had started to do all that time ago.
The ladder sat waiting for me to lug the tent up it and there I was, in the kitchen, washing month old paint-caked brushes.
The words that ran through my mind when I decided to get the paint brushes now sang a different tune as I attempted to rid my skin of the paint and white spirit smell.
“I might as well just ...” I had said to myself when I remembered them. Now I thought that it would be better to say “I might as well just do it now ...” when the task is fresh then I wouldn’t end up with the twin sisters distraction and procrastination for company when I had other things to do.
I might as well just ... remember that in the future!
My mind is always so busy that I rarely get the time to really stop and think. Meditation seems inviting when things get hectic but then there’s the reality that meditation means separation and quiet for deep clear thoughts.
Just envisaging that brought an image of a clear mountain stream just trickling gently over smooth stones as it wends its way down between the grass covered mounds. I could even see mountain goats raise their heads to look and listen before continuing to graze peacefully.
Maybe I do have enough space, maybe it is more than I imagine because if I can conjure up that image at the end of a busy day I must have been gifted my own thinking space.
The New Year is often the time when hoards of people start a new diary or journal. And on the first day of the year thousands of people awaken to an empty white space – like freshly fallen snow – that they can make their unique marks on.
I’m wondering how many people are still – a month into this new year – using their clean white spaces every day to ... do whatever they planned to. Here is some space that I haven’t filled yet ...
I wonder what I will do with it?
Even with the most positive attitude and the best will in the world you can have bad days. I have.
Some days are just not what you expected. They don’t go the way you planned and you fall into bad habits again. I have.
So what do you do on those days? Do you give up and think ‘I’ll never be able to accomplish anything again because I failed today’? I have.
But I know it’s not true.
I know that, although tomorrow isn’t promised to me, I have today, I have now and I can plan to have a better day. I have.
Sometimes our words and actions may affect others in a negative manner.
We can allow this to dominate our lives or we can choose to accept the matter for what it actually is. If your intention was kind and pure then I suggest that you rest easily and do not get deterred from your mission.
We ARE responsible for our actions and words. However, we are not expected to censor ourselves to the extent of altering our personality because we become afraid of maybe offending someone. If your heart is true then remember that in this world there will be some people - maybe many people – who may never support or encourage you: that is their choice. They may find your approach abrasive and too direct, they may regard you as misguided or hurtful. What is important is that you do not allow their growth journey to negatively impact on yours.
When situations occur you should already be conscious of your integrity and principles so that the event will not overturn you (you may suffer temporary derailment while you deal with the bruises of the attack but these will pass).
Pick yourself up, dust yourself (and your ego) off and return to your plan. If it wasn’t a good plan for you then you would have already made a different one.
Retain your standards and keep moving towards your goal.
