Better Is Good

I sing the chorus to this song all the time when Nib needs a new diaper. Good old Sheryl Crow.

But, really....who doesn't like a good positive change now and then. I know we like to talk a lot about being change adverse, but I'm the queen of self improvement and isn't that what that whole topic is all about? Change. Also know as: growth, the new, surprise, advancement, learning, skill acquisition and improvement.

Today an encouraging list. Not how to improvement myself or things I'd like to learn or ways to more deeply experience life...today, successes.

Self improvement is good and growth is fabulous stuff, but sometimes in the striving to get better we spend a little too much energy on what there is to fix and forget to remember the road we've come down. Here's to celebrating strengths, remembering the power of purposeful shaping and enjoying growing up! Heavens its good stuff!

Do join in, I wanna see your own list in the comments!

Ten Ways I've Changed For The Better In The Last 5 Years


1. My hair is the longest its ever been....I made it my goal to grow it to my hips and I made it this past year! Hooray!


2. I have learned how to point out to A in arguments, I feel threatened by the way you just said that last thing, instead of always emotionally escaping and refusing to talk anymore. So much more progressive!


3. I have learned to appreciate my body. I used to have a little list of the things I didn't like about my physical form and I can honestly say that now I have learned to either like or cleverly deal with all the little things I used to pick at. Its good to feel visually acceptable. 


4. I am a much calmer mommy to Dee and Nib than I was when Ru first came along...good thing Ru's still here to benefit too! *wink* I love feeling more in control emtionally.


5. I know how to make a good beef roast. Boy was that hard! Took me years!


6. I am a painter! I've spent my entire adult life as an artist explaining to people that I sure would love to paint, but I have a fear of working in color and am not sure how to go beyond form and shadow. Yeah. And then a friend told me to come to her art fellowship and my life has not been the same since.

7. I am far more organized. My terror of schedules and systems has melted away and I have begun to imagine and orchestrate creative organization that nurtures flexibility and allows for fun. Life is far more sane and my husband likes me more.

8. I eat better than I ever have in my adult life. I have three square meals a day, most of it from scratch, I source locally, eat seasonally and have way more produce, whole grains, legumes and grass fed beef in my diet than I would ever have imagined. And eating is very, very fun! I'm not on a drudgery laden brown rice and tofu schedule at all. I own tons of cookbooks, we eat out, I make wonderful meals and I like food more than ever. Boy does it feel good.

9. I have a great community. I have friends, I have kind neighbors, I know people I can call for references, help hauling a sofa, childcare or a good cry. I am chums with my sisters, enjoying getting to know my brother, in frequent communication with my parents and have an involved connective church where I contribute regularly and am missed if I don't show up. Relationally, life is very rich for me these days.

10.  I am almost fearless about mistake or embarassment. There was a time, a few years ago when I would have died a little inside if my fly had been down or I'd fallen on my face in front of people I admired...now I have an easy laugh, understand that failure is part of the game and have no qualms about showing my hand in front of other people. We all need to feel like the other guy is human sometimes. And honestly, we all leave our fly down occasionally. Where's the shame in that?

What's on your list?

What I Once Hated

"There is no reason why the same man should like the same books at eighteen and forty-eight."  ~Ezra Pound

Just thinking today about how fabulously relieving it is that things do not stay the same. Change is in the wind (seasons, new child, new house, new job....etc. etc.) and I find myself thinking about and release that there is in the possibility of something else. Its great to not be boxed in, eh? I love that about being a grown-up...if you don't like something, you're in charge and you can change it. Gotta love that power over your own destiny.

In that spirit. Here's a lovely little list of things I once thought I hated and now really enjoy:

1. Horseradish. Once a nasty, bitey condiment that made my nose sting repulsively and seemed odd to even to stock in your pantry and now a dearly loved addition to tender beef roast dinners. I have A's family to thank for this one.

2. Sports. I used to be one of those wretched jock-hating, doughy, bitter people who expressed her own lack of physical self-confidence in opposing all sports and sporty people and any vaguely sport-like activity. I grew up. I am still no gym rat or jock-chick but, I hope my sons learn to appreciate sports and try a few of them and I have taken up watching The Super Bowl and keeping my ears pricked about The World Series.
 
3. Poetry. Once upon a time I thought poetry was all eye-rollingly sappy or else make-your-head-hurt boring. Yeah. I'm over that. See: Jane Kenyon, for poetry that can keep me up at night, its so lovely.

4. Sushi. Call it New York City sophistication rubbing off or foodie education or just plain wishful thinking becoming reality. I always tell people that the first time I tried sushi I thought it was disgusting, the second time I choked it down and the third time I thought it was alright but the fourth time I was irreversibly hooked. Its worth it to keep trying something sometimes.

5. Classical music. Put this in the same category as poetry, high class stuff I didn't have any interest in. All my growing up I thought the whole world of classical music was a complete yawn. BOOOORING. And now? I love The Nutcracker at Christmas, feel all cozy about Fur Elise (because its my middle name) and love to hear The Moonlight Sonata or Vivaldi's Four Seasons rippling through the house...I feel like a grown-up.

6. Autobiographies. I remember as a kid my mom urging me to read some autobiographies of people I admired and see what I could learn from their lives and thinking "Puhleeze! Ick!" Fiction seemed like the thing to me when I was growing up. Now, somehow, real life seems so much more exciting and promising than pretend worlds and those who have accomplished great things are incredibly inspiring to me. I read a lot of autobiographical stuff now.

7.  Research. I used to think the very idea that someone could go into such a mind-numbingly boring profession was completely daft. Research? I could hardly think of anything more blah to spend your life on. I keep a mental list of questions I wish I knew the answers to, from medical mysteries to philosophical conundrums that seem statistically answerable, just in case I ever find myself in research. And clearly, I'm a bit of a research hound in my own everyday life too. Chalk it up to "Ways A Has Made Me A Better Person."

8. Petunias. I used to think they were this sort of boring, stinky flower with weird pubescent, sticky stems that were over-used and pathetically fragile. I now appreciate how easily a carefree petunia can fill an empty spot in the annual border and how reliable a standard they are in the garden historically...and also, I found heirloom, scented petunias, a forgotten flower of great brilliance.

9. Canned fish. I always thought these were nasty little, bone-filled, really smelly odd kind of food. And then I discovered, extra tiny sardines, boneless and skinless, packed in olive oil....MMmmmm.....so tasty and so amazingly nutrient dense. The best way to eat them is with a teeny cocktail fork, right out of the tin.

10. My ankles and my forehead. Its true. Once I hated parts of my body so much that I told A I'd have them amputated if there was a plausible way to pull it off. I think, having babies changed the way I felt about my body and getting older and understanding beauty more thoroughly helped me learn how to frame my physical person in more pleasant ways. And I read somewhere that having a high, baldy forehead like mine is a sign of Native American ancestry...(which I have!)...and that made me feel cool.


It feels really good to get older and have your world change. I'm looking forward to even more of it as I go! May the sands ever shift....