Sunday, July 12, 2009

Tolerating

I'm of two minds when it comes to the multitude of things I "put up with". On one hand, most things that bother, irritate or annoy are minor, irrelevant and inconsequential. True.

On the other hand, when you add up the many, many things that I don't bother to act upon, you reach a massive total of wasted energy. What got my attention recently was something minor. Craig and I went on a date last night which involved some enjoyable shopping. We bought a set of plain, white dishes to replace our mish mash of bits. This has been on our minds for several months, if not years.

As I unpacked and washed the new ones today, I was mindful of what a great feeling it was to clean out my crazy cupboard and replace all the nicks and chips with clean, fresh white.

I had no idea how much it was annoying me until today. I could feel this surge of energy and excitement over this minor, seemingly unimportant purchase. What I understand is that I must have hundreds of these "tolerations" (as Thomas Leonard of Coachville referred to them) in my daily life.

There is power in identifying each and every draining issue in your life. Once you have such a list in front of you, you can probably identify at least a dozen items that can be addressed with a very easy fix. Is your coffee stored in the wrong place? Do you never remember library due dates? These are pretty easily remedied with a cupboard rearrangement and a system of sticky notes. Clearing away little bothersome tasks can be an extremely effective way to lift your life up. It sounds absurd, but fixing your towel rack really can do wonders for the soul.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alternatively, you could 'unconditionally accept' dishes with chips and towels without racks if you could simply move the tolerations from 'the stack' to 'the bin'. lv me.

Catherine said...

Good point anonymous - I gotta get me a bin.

grandma anita said...

Very helpful. I started a list of Draining Issues to clear up.

Someone I respected and admired once said to me "Don't let things back up".

It is good to chunk them off one by one.